Visions of Chaos
by mysterious digidreamer
Summary: A new evil shows up to aid Rita and Zedd in their plot to destroy the Rangers. New Rangers are called on to aid the team. sorry for the lame summary..and title
1. A Sign of Danger

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to power rangers.

Author's note: this story is a slight alternate universe, so the time-line of the show is slightly different from what is in this story.

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**Chapter One: A Sign of Danger**

The desert was dry and hot as normal. Little patches of grass sprouted up here and there in this lifeless plane.

It was nightfall so the temperatures were starting to drop down to freezing as the moon casted its glow on the sparkling desert sands. The looming hazy shadow of the Command center could be seen on the darkening horizon.

The heat that the sands retained was the only form of warmth for any animal not adapted to live out in this barren land.

Everything was still and quiet, except for the croaking of the frogs, and the far off cry of the desert wolves.

A cloud of dust began to appear on the horizon, sweeping toward this peaceful scene.

As the dust-cloud approached the area, a blur of white flashed by the cactus where a frog hid among the patches of dying grass.

In a few seconds, the dust cloud caught up with the object that had just dashed past. It revealed itself as being the dust being stirred up by the pounding feet of several monsters.

The white blur was soon caught in the teeth of one of the giant monsters. The blurry figure had been outrun at last, and was now to provide a meal for one of the monsters.

The blurry figure let out a howl of pain as it was being torn limb-from limb, blood spattering all over the cactus and staining the sand red.

The other monsters began to sniff around the area for a possible next target to become their meal to fill their stomachs with.

They approached the cactus, the scent of the frog hiding among the grass coming to their noses. That would be a good meal...

* * *

Adam awoke with a cold sweat. He breathed a sigh of relief as he slowly began to take in his surroundings.

He had been having that same dream for the last few nights. He had been a frog in the desert in this dream, everything seemed to have been going peaceful, until the blurry figure of white dashed past where he stood, and then everything went to hell. He watched the blur get caught by one of the monsters and brutally torn apart. Before he'd wake up the monsters would always almost catch him.

As he sat up, he looked down at his hands. It was weird in the fact that he wasn't even himself in this dream. He picked up his morpher which lay beside him; he looked at the power-coin inside of it.

It had once been the Mastodon but ever since he and the other rangers had received their ninja powers, it had become the frog.

Adam found it almost ironic that in his dream he had been a frog. It was almost as if he was trying to be told something through this dream.

From what he had been able to draw conclusions from, he assumed it meant danger. He recognized a lot of those monsters as ones that Rita and Lord Zedd had sent down to face the Rangers long ago.

He wasn't too clear on everything else, but for now he was going with the conclusion, that something was going to happen to Tommy, in which he was probably going to be killed. (Adam only drew this conclusion from the fact that in his dream he had been a black-frog...which was an obvious symbol of him being the black power ranger, with the Ninja spirit of the frog...and the blurry figure that he had seen had been white, which was Tommy's color, so he assumed that it had been the falcon he had seen being torn to bits.)

Of course, he didn't tell the others about it. He wasn't confident that this dream was anything more than a dream at this point anyhow, nor was he even confident if what he had drawn as the meaning of this dream was correct.

He didn't want to alert the others of anything possibly dangerous happening to their leader, when he probably wasn't even in danger in the first place. After all, he couldn't be sure that Tommy was in any danger until he could confirm that the blurry animal that he saw in his dream was indeed a falcon or not.

As he got up and dressed for the morning, he considered telling the others about his dream.

Maybe if they knew then they could finally figure out what, if anything this dream meant.

But, then again...Adam thought as he grabbed his gym-bag from beside the door and headed out they wouldn't take it as anything other than a weird dream. After all, it didn't seem like anything important.

On his way to the youth-center, he debated with himself on whether or not he should tell them or not.

* * *

Of course, when he finally reached the youth center and saw the other rangers around the room, he decided against it. He knew, as a ranger it was already stressful enough wondering when Rita and Zedd were going to cook up some hare-brained scheme to try to tear them apart, or destroy Angel Grove in their attempts to rule the world.

Alerting them of the potential of new danger through a dream he wasn't even certain about would add more stress to everything else that they had to worry about. After all it was his problem, not theirs.

"Hey! Adam! Over here!"

Adam casted a brief smile and nod in the direction of where Aisha and Billy sat before heading over to them.

"Wow, Adam, you look like hell. Is something bothering you?" Aisha asked as soon as Adam sat down, resting his head on his hands.

Adam shook his head, lying. "Nothing, really. Just been awake later than normal doing a little research for a paper I have to do." He stated, telling the partial truth. (He had been staying up a little later doing research for a paper that he had to do for one of his classes, but he had finished that paper weeks ago.)

"Well, don't be doing that too often, it's not healthy for your body." Billy stated adjusting his glasses as he closed the book he had been studying from.

Sleep, Adam thought, was not the problem. He could sleep; it was the fact that he kept having those dreams which turned his sleep restless that was the problem.

Aisha looked over at where Rocky and Tommy were sparring with one another, and sighed briefly looking down at her communicator.

"You know, I kinda like that it's been pretty quiet these last few days, we've actually had a chance to relax, without Rita and Zedd trying to find some way to wreck Angel Grove." She stated with a laugh as she took a sip from the smoothie she had been drinking whenever Adam had shown up.

"Zordon's actually kind of worried about how calm things have been. Rita and Zedd not attacking in such a long time, when before it seemed like they couldn't wait to come up with a plan to terrorize the town." Billy whispered leaning over the table, toward them.

"I don't blame him being worried. You know that if Rita and Zedd have been this silent, for this long that it can only mean they're plotting something big." Adam stated crossing his arms and giving a glance toward Tommy and Rocky sparring.

He couldn't help but feel that it had something to do with his dream though. Was what Rita and Zedd possibly plotting, killing the power rangers through an ambush?

If that was it then what had happened to the others, had they already gone down before he had watched what he guessed to be the animal representing Tommy in this dream being murdered?

No, he didn't guess that was the case. He had heard wolves in the distance near the command center's shadow. Maybe, if it meant anything, then at least Billy was still alive, but for how long after he had been 'killed' in this dream Adam didn't know.

Adam sighed, as he looked around the room.

"Well, whatever it is that those two are planning, I doubt it's going to be anything too much for the power rangers." Aisha stated smiling, and leaning back in her chair slightly.

I hope you're right, Aisha. Adam thought as he got up and headed over to the locker-room to change into his work-out clothes, he hoped that maybe a good workout would help him relieve some of the stress that this dream was causing.

* * *

Silence fell among the castle on the moon, an uncommon thing. Usually the air was disturbed by the shrieking voice of one of its two masters, Queen Rita Repulsa, as she argued and/or nagged her husband Lord Zedd.

Today, and for the last few days, all the inhabitants of the evil base had put their heads to the grind-stone trying to come up with a plan of action against the power-rangers.

Every time they tried one plan, it always ended up being foiled in some way or another by the Power-rangers, sometimes those meddling teenagers and Zordon were too smart for their own good.

If they were finally going to rule the world, they'd have to think of some way to get the power-rangers out of their hair for good. Some way that was completely unable to be foiled easily. This time, they would definitely need to be putting a lot of hard thought into it if they wanted to come up with a decent plan.

It was easy to come up with plans, but harder to decide what plans were actually useful for them.

This brainstorming silence had already produced a whole gigantic chalk-board of plans, none of which had been crossed out, but had merely been put up there for consideration. Several of them were old plans that the power-rangers had foiled, mainly suggested for the idea of improving on them in one way or another, as if that would actually work.

All this thinking was giving Rita the hugest headache she had ever had. For once she was being forced to think out her ideas, and think out every possibly way for the rangers to ruin it, until she either discarded the idea or come up with a way that she was pretty sure the rangers couldn't discard.

Squatt and Baboo had left days ago, on Finster's request to retrieve someone who he had believed could be of some help to them in coming up with, and carrying out, a plan to destroy the power-rangers. They had yet to come back.

Both Rita and Zedd, and even Finster were starting to wonder what was taking those two so long to return. It was really starting to wear Finster's patients down, and he normally was a very patient creature, after having to work under Rita's rule for so many years.

"By my calculations, those two should have returned with our guest by now. I wonder what is taking them so long." Finster asked himself as he started to pace the fog-covered floor of the castle.

Rita stood up and put her hands on her hips. "Those two buffoons probably haven't even left the moon, and probably fell into a crater!" She shouted

"What, or who, did you send them out to go and retrieve? Are you sure that this person will be able to help us take down the rangers?" Zedd asked as he tapped his metallic fingers against the cold stone of his throne.

As Finster nodded in reply, an earthquake began to shake the castle.

"Ah, that should be them now!"

"...Your Highness! We're back!" Baboo's voice shouted cheerily as appeared out of nowhere.

"..And we've brought that person who you wanted us to go and get!" Squatt added as he appeared up near Baboo.

Rita stepped forward and squinted into the darkness, it didn't appear that there was anyone else with them.

"Well, who is it?" She demanded.

Two shadows began to emerge from the space in between where Rita's two henchmen stood.

As the shadows began to form, Rita's jaw fell open. She could see the snake-skin boots on one of the figures beginning to take shape, building upward from a super-model like body, dressed in very decorative cloth and snake scales. As the head of one of the figures began to take shape, a snake helmet appeared over long dark hair, the fangs of the helmet framed the face which appeared last.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Queen Minerva."

"Oh! Rita Darling! It's so good to see my little girl all grown up!" A snake-like voice sounded as the woman took a few graceful steps towards Rita and embraced her briefly.

Zedd turned to Finster and began to speak with angered voice. "You actually think bringing Rita's mother is going to help us defeat the Power-rangers?! If Master Vile couldn't even defeat the Power-rangers, what makes you think that Minerva is going to do any better?!"

Minerva turned toward Zedd and then looked at Rita. "Hm. I had heard from your father that you had married. But, he didn't mention how incredibly handsome and charming he was." She stated with a flirtatious voice as she looked back at Zedd.

"Oh, Rita hun, how many times to do I have to tell you? Just because you can see a man's brains doesn't mean that he has them, or knows how to use them." She sighed touching her long claw-like nails to her cheek.

"Seriously comparing me to that snot-rag, to think I actually liked him at one time."

Zedd looked at Finster with, what only appeared to be an annoyed look. After all it was hard for Zedd to do any expressions, with his face being nothing but metal anyhow.

"While, Queen Minerva has extraordinary powers and will be a great asset to this mission to take down the power rangers, she is merely a tag-along. When these two monkeys showed up mentioning my mistress's daughter, she decided to come with me."

At the sound of this quiet voice everyone's attention turned to the other person who had appeared with Minerva. A young woman stood there. Her hair was pure white, despite her youthful appearance.

She smiled at Finster, revealing her vampire sharp teeth as the two bowed respectfully to one another.

"Ah, Lady Beelzalea, Queen Minerva's Chief Scholar and Magi how nice it is to see you." Finster said with a smile as he approached the girl.

"Finster, you look just like you did the day that you completed your studies, that last day that I saw you." She stated with a gentle voice.

Zedd crossed his arms. He appeared to have a lot of things to say about the recent appearance of Minerva and Beelzalea. For as far as he was concerned they didn't seem like they would be any use in their plans.

"I don't get it, how exactly is she going to help us destroy the power-rangers?" Rito asked looking at Beelzalea, scratching his head.

Beelzalea smiled and tilted her head to the side as she glided over to the balcony over-looking the Earth.

She was silent for several minutes just looking intently out at Earth, as if she were looking at something on the surface. Her white eyes had changed to match the color of the oceans that she saw.

"To know what to do, a frog's nightmares is the key about where to start..." She stated dreamily turning toward the others and gliding across the room gracefully. The color from her eyes turned back to white and her mouth curved into an evil smile.

"Send down the Tengu warriors and a few Putties. I think that the Rangers have had enough of a time off don't you think?"

* * *

So far the work-out had not worked. Adam had moved on from the punching bag to sparring. Tommy was sparring against him, while Rocky had joined Aisha and Billy and Kat, who had arrived not too long ago, to cool off.

Adam realized, as he was knocked to the mat once more, by a kick he could have avoided and countered, that he just couldn't concentrate. Every time when he should have been focused his mind was starting to wander back to the dream, wondering what it all meant, if anything.

"You alright man? You didn't seem like yourself today." Tommy stated as he helped Adam to his feet and over to the table where the others were.

Once more, Adam used the lie that he was doing just fine; it was probably just the lack of sleep getting to him.

They all seemed to buy that lie, even though he hated lying to his friends like this, he just didn't want to bother them with his troubles.

After awhile, they had all decided to do a little skating at the Angel Grove Park.

While the others chatted and laughed as they enjoyed the skate through the park on this nice clear day, Adam stayed silent, which was nothing new for him, he was usually a quiet person, and he had been ever since he was a kid.

Sure, he laughed, usually it was a genuine laugh, but today he was just so out of it, that he didn't find the jokes that Rocky cracked half as funny as they once had been.

After they had skated around the park for awhile, they were suddenly stopped. Billy and Kat were looking up at the top of a nearby hill, where a lot of shadows stood.

As the other's attention was drawn to these figures, expressions of shock began to dawn across their faces.

"Is that what I think it is?" Aisha asked curiously squinting as the figures moved down the hill quickly.

"Putties?" Billy asked adjusting his glasses.

"...and Tengu?" Rocky added in a little more confusion.

Suddenly the rangers were swarmed by the group that had just arrived.

Everyone spread out as they battled the Tengu and the Putties.

Aisha leapt into the air to avoid the low-kick of a putty while landing a kick right to a Tengu's head. As soon as the Tengu had been knocked back, she heel-kicked the putty behind her, before dodging the swinging arms of a nearby Tengu.

"Well, so much for the peaceful days!" She shouted.

Rocky grabbed onto a low hanging tree-branch and swung from it, taking out two Putties with one hit. As they crumbled to pieces, he jumped off the branch in just enough time to duck an attack from some Tengu.

"Rita and Zedd must have thought that we actually missed fighting these guys."

Kat and Tommy were back to back, fighting off the swarm of enemies as they came at them.

"Something's gotta be up, Rita and Zedd have never sent both the Tengu and the putties after us." Tommy shouted as he ducked an attack, and countered.

Billy was recovering from being knocked back by a Tengu and then pushed forward by a Putty.

"Guys, I don't think we're going to be able to fight them all off like this. We're going to need Ninja Ranger power!"

They all nodded, in one quick motion they summoned the Ninja-power to their bodies, and morphed into their Ninja outfits.

With this new change of outfit they had gained some new strength that they had not had before.

"Alright, let's do it!" Aisha called out as they all began to pummel the Tengu and Putties into the ground.

Rita and Zedd sure picked a great day to launch an attack, Adam thought as he tried to fight off the Tengu who had begun to circle him. The one day that he was totally out of it, that's when they decided to attack.

In a matter of seconds, Two Tengu had his arms behind his back, while another was kicking the living daylights out of him. He attempted to block the Tengu's attacks and break free, but the two who restrained him had such a tight grip on him that even in his Ninja form he couldn't escape.

"Adam!!" He heard the others shout as they saw their friend in danger.

One Tengu, who appeared to be the leader of these Tengu and Putties approached him, as he drew closer to him he withdrew an object from a pouch that had been at his side. When the Tengu at arm's length of Adam, as he tried to fight back. He noticed that the object appeared to be a dart of some type. Whatever it was for, Adam didn't want to find out.

Before he knew it though, a pain hit him in the shoulder. It felt like knife had been driven into his shoulder, followed up by the what felt like blood coming from the wound

The pain only lasted for a few seconds; Adam soon realized that he was starting to lose all feeling in his body. His mind had begun to descend into a haze, and he was finding it difficult to keep his eyes open, much less keep-himself standing up on his own in the grasp of the Tengu who restrained him.

After several seconds, Adam's head lulled forward on his chest, as his consciousness had slipped entirely. He collapsed to the ground as the Tengu that restrained him let go of him.

"Adam!"

The Tengu knew that the other rangers were pissed off now and were ready to kick all of the Tengu and Putties butts. It was time to retreat.

As they took off flying/disappearing, the Rangers looked around in confusion. They didn't get why they had taken off so quickly, even when they seemed to have the upper-hand on the battle.

* * *

It took them a few seconds, once the confusion to wear off to remember Adam. He was still lying on the ground, motionless.

Quickly they rushed over to him, as soon as they reached him; his Ninja-power disappeared, returning to his power-coin. Of course, when the power left him, he didn't awake or show any signs of life. This began to really worry the other rangers.

"Is he?" Kat began, unable to say the word that was needed to finish that sentence. She didn't want to think that it was even possible that one of the team could possibly be dead.

Before, they had any time to discuss anything further, their communicators went off. It had been the first time in the last few days, and it had almost taken them all by surprise.

"Come in Zordon. What's up?"

"Rangers, Teleport to the command center quickly. I have urgent news."

Rocky glanced over at Tommy and then down to Adam, as the two of them helped get Adam's unconscious form to his feet. "It can't be any more urgent than this." His eyes seemed to say for him.

With a little difficulty, they all managed to teleport to the command center.

* * *

As soon as they landed, Tommy and Rocky, both stumbled foreword, trying to keep Adam on his feet.

"Ayaiyai! Rangers what's happened?" Alpha stated in shock as he turned from the computer console to see the rangers, worried faces as they looked at Adam, being supported by Tommy and Rocky.

"We were attacked in the park, by Tengu and Putties." Aisha stated with a frown as she looked up at Zordon.

Alpha pushed a few buttons on the control panel and chair appeared in the dark space, a little off to the side of the area where the Rangers stood.

Knowing, why this had been summoned Tommy and Rocky slowly helped their unconscious friend over there and gently sat him down, before returning to the others.

"One of the Tengu stabbed Adam with some sort of syringe, although I'm not sure what was inside the syringe, whatever it was it got in Adam. Hopefully it didn't kill him." Billy stated glancing over at Adam.

Alpha had begun to apply some bandages to the wound on Adam's shoulder, as he ran a scan of the unconscious teenager.

"Rita and Zedd must really be plotting something evil, if they sent out Putties and Tengu after us." Kat stated.

Alpha turned toward the others as he approached them, with the results of the scan that he had run on Adam.

"It appears that Adam is heavily sedated, caused by a sleeping potion that had enough strength to put an elephant to sleep for a few minutes. Aside from being asleep for quite a while, Adam will be just fine, as soon as the sleeping potion wears off."

A sigh of relief rang through the air of the command center as the rangers received the news.

"Zordon, what was so urgent that you had to call us here?" Tommy asked, as soon as he remembered that Zordon had summoned them there for some urgent news.

"Behold the viewing globe..." Zordon began, as a flicker of light appeared behind them coming from the viewing globe, producing an image that Zordon had wanted the rangers to see.

The sight that was on the viewing globe was not pretty. A very snake-like woman was glaring back at them with the most sinister of looks. It was someone that none of the rangers recognized, but if Zordon was worried about it had had called them there to see this creature, then this person was probably someone they should be worried about.

"This is Minerva Repulsa...A powerful Queen from a plant deep beyond the reaches of this galaxy." Zordon began.

Minerva's last name had sounded a little odd, and rather familiar to all of them. Kat was the first one to ask about it.

"Wait. Repulsa? You mean like in Rita?" She asked curiously.

Alpha nodded, "Indeed. Minerva is Rita's mother."

Rocky sighed and put his hands on his hips. "Well, obviously Rita got her ugly looks from her parents." He joked.

"Queen Minerva is not our greatest concern." Zordon stated,

Billy adjusted his glasses and raised his eyebrow, while Aisha spoke the question that he was about to ask.

"What do you mean Zordon? Wouldn't Rita's mother be a concern, I mean if she's anything like Rita, shouldn't we be worried?"

The image on the viewing globe changed once more. This time, a white-haired, woman appeared. She wore flowing robes, the same color as her hair and eyes. She wore a rather dreamy and peaceful look on her face, as her image looked back at the Rangers from the viewing globe.

"Who's she?"

"This is Beelzalea. Minerva's Chief Scholar and Magi. Don't let her peaceful demeanor fool you she has powers comparable to that of a sorceress. She has been summoned to Rita and Lord Zedd's aide, to help destroy you."

"Undoubtedly Beelzalea, teamed up with Rita and Zedd's powers, will be enough to destroy you all." Alpha stated.

The others turned toward Alpha. None of them liked the news that the robot had just given them.

"But, if together they're as strong as you're saying they are, what chance do we have against them?" Kat asked in a worried tone of voice, obviously she was uneasy about what seemed to be the inevitable fate of the Power-rangers.

Tommy put his hand on Kat's shoulder. "Don't worry about it Kat. I'm sure whatever it comes down to we'll be fine, as long as we stay together as a team." He stated trying to calm her down and reassure her, even though it was pretty clear he was worrying the same things and needed reassuring as well.

"The battle ahead of you is difficult, but there is still hope rangers." Zordon stated with a reassuring voice.

"Yes. When Zordon and I came to Earth, we brought with us the power-coins, which give you all your Ranger powers, when you received your Ninja powers all of the power-coins changed to become similar to the coins that you now carry."

Billy adjusted his glasses. "By saying that they all changed to become like ours, are you meaning to say that there are more than six power-coins?"

Zordon nodded. "Precisely Billy. In addition to Rita once possessing the Dragon Power-coin, four other power-coins existed alongside the Power-coins you all now have."

Rocky seemed hopeful, as well as the others.

"As of late, the Green-Dragon Power Coin had re-generated its power. Alpha and I have always known that one day we would have to call on the power of the other coins. However only three power coins and the Dragon Coin are in our possession." Zordon continued.

Aisha put her hands on her hips. "But if, we need the help of these new rangers... won't we need all the new coins? That last power coin could be anywhere! They could get to it before we can, and if that power falls into their hands, who knows what they'll do with it. "she sighed exasperated, showing that she was starting to lose hope.

"Due to this most recent, I fear that we haven't much time in finding the missing power-coin." Zordon continued.

Tommy gave a confused look as he looked around at the group and then to Zordon. The look that he gave Zordon told Zordon to go on, because he like the rest didn't understand.

"It appears that Beelzalea must already be searching for the missing power-coin."

"You mean, she sent down the Tengu and the Putties to keep us distracted, to give her a head start?" Rocky asked.

Zordon nodded. "Not only that, but to obtain information on the location of the missing power-coin."

Everyone looked at one another trying to understand what information could have been obtained in the recent Tengu attack.

"Adam got attacked for a reason. He had information that contained the whereabouts of the missing power-coin. Beelzalea wanted that information for her own." Alpha responded, "...and it appears that in a way she got what she wanted."

Aisha raised an eyebrow as she looked over toward where Adam was sleeping.

"But if Adam already knew where the missing power-coin was, then why didn't they just kidnap him? I mean, if Beelzalea needed information from him, then why did she send the Tengu down to knock him out?" She asked curiously.

Billy crossed his arms as he began to think about it."I don't think that Adam consciously knew that he knew the location of the missing power-coin, much less that these other power-coins existed. If he knew, you think he would have mentioned something about it to us before."

"But how is that possible?" Kat asked curiously, glancing toward Adam.

"...It's possibly that he could have been sent this information through some-sort of coded message, subconsciously." Billy continued.

"You mean like a reoccurring dream?" Rocky asked putting his hands behind his head and looking curiously at Billy.

"Precisely. Now, if Beelzalea is really as powerful as it is said she is, then isn't it possible that when she sent down the Tengu to sedate Adam, that she also wanted the tengu to retrieve some of his blood, so that she can use it in some way to keep a monitor on his thoughts and dreams, while he is asleep?"

Zordon nodded. "Exactly Billy. While Adam sleeps, Beelzalea can monitor his dreams, decoding them. While the location of the missing power-coin is still hidden in the dream, as soon as she decodes the dream, she will undoubtedly begin to search."

Billy paced around the command center for a few brief moments while Zordon talked, it seemed that he was coming up with some sort of plan of action that might be useful.

"I doubt that there is anything that we can do, as far as making sure that Adam's dreams aren't being monitored. But, I think it may be possible to do the same, obtain the same information that Beelzalea is getting and try to decode it before she does and possibly beat her to finding the power-coin."

"But how are we supposed to see something that's going on in Adam's head? In case you haven't noticed, none of us have any power to do that." Rocky stated crossing his arms.

"I know that." Billy stated. "But, I have a theory."

* * *

"Each of our powers is tied to us through our Power-coins and vice-versa. If we can some-how use Adam's power-coin and the morphing grid, then possibly we can project the dream onto the viewing globe...and see what he's seeing. With that we can possibly decode it, and hopefully beat Rita and Zedd to the missing power-coin." He continued as he paced around the room.

Alpha nodded and began to push buttons on the control panel. "Alright, Rangers, cross your fingers and hope this works."

A loud buzzing was heard all around the room, as the whole process had started. Flashes of light went off every few seconds. They noticed that Adam had been encased in black glow, as his Power-coin began to react.

"Almost there..." Alpha stated as he pushed a few more buttons and turned a few dials. In response to this the viewing globe lit, up. It as well was surrounded by a black glow around the edges.

As the Rangers watched the dream unfold before them, they were a little bit confused at first. It didn't seem like anything interesting, or meaningful.

Until they saw the attack, and watched the dream cut off abruptly before they ever found out what had happened.

As soon as the dream was over, the command center returned to normal, and the lights went away, and Adam was left still peacefully sleeping.

"...That's terrible! Poor Adam, he's been having a nightmare like this all along and hasn't told anyone." Kat stated gently looking toward Adam's resting form.

"He didn't want to worry us about something that he probably didn't understand himself." Tommy stated crossing his arms.

Billy watched the dream, once more, (since Alpha had recorded it while it had played the first time.) He squinted at the blur of white that had gone by and had been ripped up by the monsters.

* * *

Soon. She thought as she intently watched the snake as it rested on a rock. She readied the spear as she slowly inched forward in her crouching position, being careful not to make a sound.

When she was close enough, she quickly bounded into the air, the snake detected the sudden movement, but it was too late. She had already driven her spear into its body, and was wriggling the last of its life out pinned against a rock and a spear.

She smiled triumphantly as the snake died; she withdrew her spear and plucked the snake from the end of it, delicately placing it onto the bag at her hip. She opened the bag, while taking a seat on the rock that she had just killed the snake on.

Two snakes, and several frogs, and some cactuses. That seemed like a good dinner, once she got a fire started, she thought closing the bag.

She stretched and yawned. She had spent most of the afternoon hunting, and it was getting rather tiring. She wiped sweat from her forehead as she reached for a fragment of a nearby cactus, ignoring the sharp needles as she ripped it off, drinking some of the water that was retained in it.

Well, she thought. I'd better be getting back to the camp.

As she got to her feet, something caught her attention standing next to one of the taller cactuses a couple of feet from her.

She recognized the figure to be very similar to her reflection, the same basic body structure that is. Two arms, two legs, a chest, a neck, a head. Five fingers, two eyes and a mouth. Although the general appearance of the person that she saw looked nothing like her, except maybe for the shape of the eyes, and the color of the hair.

He didn't appear to be solid though. He had something of a ghostly appearance to her.

She smelt a frog nearby; it seemed to be from this person that looked back at her. Even though it was impossible. It was almost as if he were the frog. This was impossible, because he looked nothing like a frog to her. A Monster perhaps?

Quickly she drew out her spear, and fell into an attacking position. Her free hand felt the smaller pouch at her side withdrawing a golden coin, snarling like the wild beast she was at this ghost.

Who or what is this? She thought as she slowly circled the ghost that stood before her.

Almost as if reading her thoughts, the image turned to her and spoke. "I am the Black Ninja Frog Ranger. I appear to you as a human, much like yourself." The ghost started to calmly say.

The girl that he spoke to's eyes narrowed upon him. Human? What did he mean human, much like myself? She thought angrily, he had to be lying in calling her human.

"That coin you posses is one of the powers apart of the great power of the Ninjetti that I am a part of." He stated calmly.

She growled and eyed the coin in her hand. She didn't trust what this ghost was saying. How was she supposed to believe him?

"There is an evil force that is looking for that coin you have, and they will stop at nothing to take it from you."

The girl continued to glare, and wrapped her fingers tighter around the coin. He might be talking calmly, but he was really starting to creep her out. She didn't trust him, appearing in front of her like a ghost, talking about the coin she had, it all seemed pretty fishy.

After all, how can I trust something that has the scent of something that I eat for dinner? She thought creeping foreword slowly.

"In the next few days, you and I will meet again. Of course, I will not recognize you, or have any conscious memory that this conversation took place, since the person you will meet, will actually be the person that I am appearing to you as."

"When you meet again, you must return with him, to unite the missing power with the others, in order to stand against an evil that wants to take over the world, destroying you and the others who possess the powers of the Ninjetti."

Why should I have to help these people? I don't know them, and I don't trust you. How do I know that you're not the monsters that you're warning me about? How can I know that you're not trying to lead me into a trap?

"I understand that you don't believe me, but you must trust me. The fate of the world depends upon it. If the others who have the powers of the Ninjetti die, your power-coin will lose its power as well."

She looked down at the golden coin that she clasped in her hand. Was this coin really that special? She hadn't ever used it before; she mainly just carried it around for luck. Wad what this ghost was telling her true? Could this coin really be in possession of some sort of special power?

"I must go now. I have another message to deliver. But please, keep what I have told you in mind, for the next time you see me again."

Wait! she thought, rushing at the ghost. He couldn't leave just yet. She wanted to know more about why he had thought that the coin she had was so important, and what it really was.

As she reached the ghost, she lunged forward to get a grasp on the ghost's shoulders. Maybe she could stop him from leaving, and demand the answers from him that she wanted to know.

However, she passed right through him, grasping air, falling flat on her face on the other side of him. When she looked over her shoulder as she got back to her feet she found that the ghost was completely gone.

* * *

"From these images, I think our safest bet is to say that the Power-coin is in the desert, not too far from us. I think I see the Command Center off in the distance." Billy pointed out as he stopped the recording of the dream on the part where they could see the command center.

"That's...exactly where it is. However, it is already in someone's hands." A voice stated from other side of the command center.

The rangers turned immediately to the source of the voice. A ghostly image of Adam stood there on the other side. This ghost was wearing the Black Ninja Ranger's outfit.

"Adam? H-how are you there, when you're...but you're there and you're still over there..." Rocky started, but eventually confused himself entirely that he had to stop and try to get things sorted out in his mind.

The ghostly image of Adam approached the Rangers, as he began to answer the question for them. "I am the Black Frog Ninja Ranger power. I have taken the appearance of the human who possesses my power, you know him better as Adam. So while I may appear to look like Adam, I am not."

"You said that the missing power-coin was already in someone else's hands? What do you mean?" Tommy asked approaching the ghostly image of Adam that stood before them.

The ghost of Adam nodded. "Several years ago, a scientist studying Angel Grove's natural landscape stumbled across the oasis in the desert where the Power-coin was hidden. Soon the power coin came into his possession."

"This scientist was fascinated with the object that he had found, although unaware of what it actually was. To better understand the object that he had found, he moved into the desert, to do more research of the object."

"With him he took his wife and their young child. They lived there in the desert for awhile, until one day; When Three Monsters appeared, in search of the power-coin. They kidnapped the child, holding it hostage in exchange for the power-coin."

"The researcher gave up the coin, hoping that the Monsters would keep to their promise..."

Aisha sighed, "Great, so it's in the hands of some monsters..." She stated slumping her shoulders in defeat.

The ghost-image of Adam briefly smiled as he shook his head. "No, not exactly. You see the researcher made the mistake of trusting a monster, and the monsters took the child as well, escaping into the desert."

"What they didn't count on was the child escaping from their grasp, protected by the power of the coin. The monsters were sealed away in a cave, and the child was later taken in by a herd of wild desert rabbits...as unbelievable as that is."

"So we're looking for a person who has been raised by rabbits, who lives in the desert." Rocky stated raising his eyebrow. The whole thing seemed a little too incredulous to be true. It was hard to believe that the power coin was in the hand of a desert dwelling person, raised by rabbits.

"Correction. Adam is looking for the person that you described. That person is expecting to meet me, as Adam, again whenever Adam goes into the desert to retrieve them. Any other Ranger and they would undoubtedly attack."

* * *

There was a silence among the rangers, mixed with looks of protest and worry. What this person, claiming to be the embodiment of Adam's powers was trying to say was that Adam has to go out on this dangerous mission alone to retrieve the power coin.

"Are you sure that..." Tommy began.

Adam's ghost image nodded. "Yes. Retrieving the person who possesses the missing power-coin is a mission that Adam must do alone. "

"I must go, for I must speak to Adam myself about this mission. To alert him of the dangers that he will be facing." The ghostly image stated as he stepped backward into the darkness, vanishing.

The Rangers looked around at one another with looks of worry and uneasiness. Every once in awhile they would cast a look to their resting friend. Sending Adam out into the desert alone, knowing that Beelzalea may or may not have already deciphered the location of the missing power-coin was almost certain death.

But...It apparently had to be done, and Adam was the only one who could do it. If this new ranger was expecting to meet Adam, that must have meant that they already knew what he looked like and would know whether it was him or not.

"...Well...Now what?" Rocky asked leaning against the one of the control-panels.

"Now, we wait...until the sleeping potion wears off and Adam returns to full strength." Billy stated with a sigh.

* * *

* * *


	2. Beginning the Journey

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to Power rangers

* * *

**Chapter 2: Beginning the Journey**

Peppermint, Adam thought as he inhaled deeply. That's the smell that had reached his nose, as he lay there staring up at the sky.

How ever he ever got here, he didn't know but would definitely have liked to know. His whole body ached, as if he had just gotten hit by a train.

He remembered the group being ambushed by Tengu and putties, getting stabbed with something, falling through the darkness...and then waking up here.

...But why did he smell Peppermint? He asked himself as he slowly stood up, taking in his surroundings.

He found that he was in the middle of a field; there was a serene pond nearby and cherry blossoms that were in bloom.

"Where am I?" He asked himself aloud his voice escaping his mouth in a whisper.

"In a dream." A voice stated from nearby him

Quickly Adam's eyes turned toward the pond that was nearby. At first he didn't see anything.

"Where are you?"

"Over here, by the pond."

Adam stood up and walked over towards the pond looking for the source of the voice that was speaking to him.

"Okay, just a little closer, now, look to your left."

Adam did as he was told, but still he didn't see anyone. Raising his eyebrow to show his confusion prompted the voice to speak again.

"Down here."

Adam looked down at the ground in front of him. A frog sat there perched on a rock, looking up at him.

Okay, Adam thought sarcastically as he knelt down to the frog, Things are really starting to make a lot of sense now.

Now I really know I'm in a dream. I'm standing in the middle of a place, that I don't even know where it is...or how I got here, talking to a frog. Yup, things are making a lot of sense now.

"Who are you?"

"A representation of the Black Ninja Ranger powers." The frog replied to him.

Sure, that makes sense. I do have the black Ninja ranger powers, which are represented by a Frog, so it only makes sense for me to be talking to a frog in a dream, but that doesn't explain the smell of peppermint.

"Adam, I know that this is awkward to you, but you must listen. The Tengu put you under a strong sleeping spell, I took that opportunity to bring you here, and there is something that I must tell you. The sleeping potion is beginning to wear off, so I must be quick about this."

The frog began to explain to him about the other power coins and the missing power-coin and how he would have to go out to the desert to find the person who had the missing power coin alone, and about how to find the person that held the missing power-coin.

"Does it precisely have to be me? What if I get attacked? Someone strong should go find this person...like Rocky...or...Tommy, or any of the other rangers." Adam stated a few seconds after he had been told that he had to go alone into the desert.

The frog appeared to shake it head, "...No Adam, the other Ninja powers and I have decided that this is our mission, yours and mine, to find and retrieve the missing power coin from the desert."

"Besides, they're expecting to see you, not someone who they can't identify by appearances, I mean unless you want them to attack your friends, making sure they never return from the desert." The Frog added.

Adam sat down on the rock opposite of where the frog was perched and sighed deeply. Well, put that way it looked like he didn't have a choice. He would have to go into the desert when he woke up.

"Now, that you understand what you must do, I must leave you. The sleeping potion is beginning to wear off."

"...and remember, you must do this mission alone. I will know if you don't...and if you do not go alone, then you must be prepared to have the possible death of another ranger to weigh on your mind for the rest of your life." The Frog stated as it started to vanish, and everything began to grow hazy in Adam's vision.

As Adam fell into darkness once more, he began to hear whispering voices once more.

* * *

"I don't like this...going out into the desert by himself, with Beelzalea out there on the loose looking for that power-coin too,"

"But Kat, We have to respect the fact that it is something that he has to do."

"..But...Rocky..."

"He's a Ranger, we have to respect that fact that there are some things that only he can do, and maybe retrieving the person who has the missing power-coin from the desert is something that only he can do. Besides it's not like he can't defend himself."

"...still..."

"Aisha and I have known him much longer than any of you guys, we were a team after all before we were a team with you guys, and in every competition we were in, Adam was always one of the best fighters on our team. "

"I mean despite the fact he had some serious self-confidence issues with his ability in the past, and still has some of those issues still, but he can still bring himself to defend himself in a dangerous situation."

Adam opened his eyes partially. The light that was pouring into the window of his bedroom. (The other rangers had taken him from the command center to his house in order for him to recover.) His body still ached, and for some reason he still was still smelling peppermint. (It made a little more sense to him now, his mother always started using peppermint air-fresheners around the house, and making peppermint tea whenever she was worried, or was stressed, as a way to calm down and relax.)

The others were talking about him, he just knew it, and from the looks of things the group had already heard about what he had to do, and were pretty much divided on whether or not they really should let him go into the desert by himself.

Rocky and Aisha were defending him agreeing that this was something that he had to do, while Kat, Tommy, and Billy were arguing about the rest of them going with him into the desert.

"What if Beelzalea sends down a monster? She knows he'll be out there by himself. We haven't ever faced any of her creations before, how do we know that he won't be alright? I mean the Putties and the Tengu were difficult enough for us to handle as a team, what if they get sent down again and attack Adam in the desert?"

"Better me risking my life than you all walking into certain death because of a mission that I was chosen to do." Adam managed to mutter out, as he slowly sat up and looked around the crowded room.

"Adam! You're awake! It's about time! You've been asleep for the last two days straight. We were all starting to get a little worried about you!" Aisha stated in surprise as the group's argument was broken up and they all turned to look at they're awakened friend.

Kat crossed her arms. "Adam, we can't let you go in the desert by yourself. What if you die? How will we explain things to your parents? Plus, I don't think none of us could live with ourselves if something happened to you, and died."

"Then you can image how I'd feel if you guys went on a mission that all of us know that you supposed to do alone. Look if you guys go, you already know you're going to be walking into certain death, and I couldn't live with myself if all of you went into the desert and died."

"...He's got a point. Five deaths on one conscious is a lot worse than one death five people's mind." Rocky stated crossing his arms.

To counter this Kat had nothing. It just didn't seem like there was any arguing against sending Adam out to retrieve the missing power-coin from the desert alone.

Silence hung among the rangers for several minutes. It was a tense silence, which was met by uneasy and unhappy stares from the rest of the rangers, as they carried on the debate through glares.

* * *

"What?! What's this?! The rangers are in an ugly disagreement, already, with no spell what so ever? Impossible!" Rita screeched when she peered into her telescope, and centered in on the scene unfolding among the rangers down on Earth.

"It's a wonder how they have lasted this long when they appear to crumble so easily on their own, all you have to do is given them one small little issue." Minerva laughed from the chair she was lounging in.

Zedd looked over toward where Beelzalea sat, among books and various gadgets and potions. She had such a serene look upon her face, as she browsed through some of the books in front of her. She must have had something to do with the ranger's disagreement and wasn't letting on that she knew any reason behind it.

The Rangers had never been at such a divided disagreement all at once. Not even with a spell. Zedd scratched his chin. Perhaps this witch was more useful than he first thought. If she had been responsible for the Ranger's disagreement, with what seemed like no effort, then perhaps she could destroy those pesky rangers once and for all.

"I take it by my Mistresses Rita's shrieking voice as it rips apart the silent air among us that the sleeping potion I sent with one of the Tengu to give to the frog has finally worn off." Beelzalea stated without even looking up from her books.

"My Mistress Rita's voice, it cuts the ears like a sword, sticking into the brain. Forever does anyone who hears my Mistress Rita's voice have the scar the tones leave upon the brain. A person could recognize her anywhere after they heard her voice. All they would have to do is look at the echoing scar on their brain." Beelzalea muttered to herself as she continued to flip through the pages of the book in front of her.

Zedd watched Beelzalea from where he sat. Although she babbles nonsense and pretends to be weak, he could just tell that she was hiding enough power that could possibly overthrow whomever she wished. He began to wonder why she hadn't ever used this power to over throw Minerva and conquer worlds on her own.

* * *

"I'm back!" Mrs. Park stated as she entered through the front door carrying grocery bags. The others had left Adam alone by this point so that he could shower and get prepared for the trip he had to make, and they all were standing around the living room when his mother came in.

As she noticed the silence, and the mummbled hello from her son's friends, she began to worry; she hoped everything was alright between them; after all they all were such close friends. But she didn't bother to ask.

"Do you need any help with those groceries Mrs. Park?" Aisha stated immediately jumping up from where he was sitting.

She smiled kindly and nodded her head. "Well, I don't need any help with these but there are a couple more out in the car that you can get for me, if you want to help me out."

Aisha nodded and headed out the door.

"I'll help you out." Rocky stated jumping up quickly and following Aisha out, from the argument that he had been with Kat earlier, he didn't really feel comfortable being surrounded by people who were already in a disagreement with him, even if they hadn't said anything about it for the last few minutes, and even if they were his friends.

As soon as Aisha and Rocky returned with the other groceries they both started helping Mrs. Park put away the groceries.

"By the way, I want to thank you all for being here for Adam, Even though I wish that you all could be here under a little bit better circumstances." Mrs. Park stated glancing over toward her son's friends.

"No problem Mrs. Park. I know that Adam would be there for us if the same thing had happened to us." Rocky stated, with a glance towards Kat, Billy, and Tommy as he spoke.

"When Adam began studying martial arts, we expected that he would end up getting injured every once in awhile."

"Again, Mrs. Park, I'm really sorry about what happened to Adam. I didn't mean to hurt him, and I should have realized that he wasn't feeling well enough to practice before I asked him to a sparring match." Tommy stated kindly as he helped the others put the groceries away.

"It's alright. I'm aware that it was an accident. Besides Adam has dealt with worse injuries than this." Mrs. Park stated.

"In any case, you all are welcome to have dinner here tonight with us tonight if you want."

The others nodded, agreeing that they would talk to their parents and get their permission before deciding to stay for dinner.

After a few minutes of the groceries being put away Mrs. Park stopped and just started staring down the hallway toward Adam's room.

She could hear music coming from that general direction

"Adam?" She asked as she headed toward the door, the others following behind her.

When she had reached the door, she knocked on it briefly before opening the door and stepping inside.

She had been expecting to see Adam in his room, reading or just sitting on the bed listening to the music.

However the sight that she came across whenever she entered the room, caused her heart to sink for a minute and then speed up into a panic.

The radio was on, but Adam's room was completely empty. He wasn't anywhere to be found, but he hadn't left the room at all. She would have seen him leave the room.

She started breathing heavily out of worry. How could her son just vanish like? He'd never just get up and leave and not give so much as a word!

As she started to head back to the living room, she left the others standing at Adam's bedroom door. All of them were confused as well.

Had Adam already left out on his mission without telling them?

"He's...gone...guys..." Kat stated with a sigh and a shake of her head as she looked around among her friends.

"I can't believe this...and without so much as a goodbye..." Aisha stated in a whisper shaking her head, and glancing back into Adam's room.

"I guess there is nothing that we can really do about it now. Adam's made his decision to carry out his mission. All that we can hope is that he comes back alive, if at all." Billy stated adjusting his glasses.

Rocky put his hand on the door frame. "....I just can't believe this." He stated turning back toward the living room.

"I'm gonna go and make sure Mrs. Park is alright." He added with a frown as he pushed past Kat on his way back to the living room.

When Rocky and the other returned to the front of the house the found Mrs. Park standing at a counter, cutting up vegetables while a cup of peppermint tea was seeping next to her. She appeared to be trying to hide the fact that she was worried and upset about her son's sudden disappearance.

"Mrs. Park? Do you mind if we use your phone real quick? I think we will see if we can take up that dinner offer. After all we wouldn't feel comfortable just leaving you and your husband here without anyone, after this whole incident." Aisha asked/stated as she put her hand on Mrs. Park's shoulder.

Adam's mother nodded silently and continued to chop up vegetables; all the while it was obvious that she was holding back tears.

* * *

Silence hung in the air between her, the fire, and the rabbit that sat on the other side. The Rabbit was busy eating the cactus and roots that she had brought back to it, while she was cooking up the things she had hunted that day.

Things had been uneasy between the two of them ever since the girl had seen the weird ghost of a person out in the desert two days ago.

_What is it my child? Why have you been giving me those strange looks ever since you returned from the hunt two days ago_? She could tell the rabbit was saying to her.

_Ceres, I met something in the desert two days ago, on my hunt. It looked like me. It said I was 'human' like itself....._She replied to the question.

Ceres looked over toward the small ruins of a home that had once stood here, that they both had used as a camp.

_You were called a human, because you are a human. _

_Ceres, what do you mean?_

_It was several years ago, and you were very young, so I don't expect you to remember, but I found you wandering through the desert, not too far from here, it appeared that you had lost your way, and couldn't find your real parents. I knew that for being such a young child you wouldn't have been able to survive for very long on your own, and so I took you in and raised you as I would one of my own, even though I taught you how to hunt animals that rabbits, as herbivores, would never eat. _

_Ceres..._

_..I never expected you believe that you were actually a rabbit, or to forget your origins altogether. I just couldn't ever bring myself to tell you that you were adopted...and of another species._

The girl looked into the fire with saddened eyes, as she bit her lip. She reached into the pouch at her side and withdrew the golden coin, examining it in the fire light. The picture that was etched into this coin was one that looked like Ceres. A rabbit. She had always thought that she was like Ceres...a rabbit.

She began to realize it now that the signs had been there for awhile. She had never really fit in around the other rabbits, and they didn't want anything to do with her. This was the reason that she didn't have any friends among the other rabbits.

This coin and a couple of things in the camp behind them were the only things that she actually had left of the place that she really belonged.

_Ceres...I'm...I'm going to be leaving soon. I have to._

_But child...._

_Ceres, the thing that I met on the hunt told me, before vanishing that the next time that we were to meet, I must go back with him._

Ceres looked at the girl through the fire; the girl could tell that the rabbit was very understanding of what it was being told.

The girl leaned back and started to stare at the sky. The mere thought there was a world outside of this desert, with other...humans...out there, excited her, but at the same time scared her.

She would have to leave Ceres, and all this behind, and she didn't know if she would ever see her adopted Rabbit-mother again.

Plus she wasn't even sure what to expect when it came to the world outside the desert.

...But then again there was always a chance that her parents...the ones that she had been with before being found by Ceres, were still alive. She could try to go and find them.

_Child, I understand that you are confused, and a little frightened learning this information, and having to leave, but...I've always known a day like this would happen. So, while I will miss you deeply, I understand that this is something that you have to do._

The girl smiled slightly, looking down at the coin in her hand before placing it back into the pouch at her side, and looking back up into the night sky.

_Thank you Ceres._

* * *

Silence had fallen among the five teens and Mr. and Mrs. Park as they all ate dinner together.

There was uneasiness in the conversation as everyone carefully tried to avoid he mention of Adam's disappearance, at the risk of upsetting everyone else.

"Well, this food is delicious Mrs. Park." Tommy stated breaking the silence, with idle conversation.

Mrs. Park smiled briefly, replying that she was glad that Tommy and the others found her cooking to be good.

Rocky and Kat were starting to continue the argument they had been having earlier, without saying anything, just though stares. Of course now the argument had become Kat telling Rocky that she was right that Adam going out into the desert by himself was a bad idea, while Rocky only returned depressed glances telling her to stop rubbing it in. It was bad enough that his best friend had just left without a word.

Half way through dinner, Mrs. Park glanced over silently at the hallway. The hallway was rather dimly lit, since the light bulb had blown out a few weeks ago, she had been meaning to fix that. She just couldn't help but think about Adam.

There was something in her that made her want to believe that the whole incident from earlier hadn't occurred. That any second Adam was going to come out of his room and join them all for dinner, apologizing for not having joined them sooner.

"He's gone Honey. I'm sorry." Mr. Park stated putting his hand on his wife's shoulder and heaving a deep sigh.

Mrs. Park closed her eyes and shook her head, "I know...but, I...just can't believe that he'd do something like this. I mean, just run away from home without warning? It's just not like..."She began.

When she opened her eyes and looked back down the hall, she took a sharp intake of breath. Standing there in the darkness, just visible on the outskirts of the pale florescent lights of the kitchen, was a person.

"Adam?" She breathed out, casting a look to the others; it appeared that they had seen him too, since they stood there with open mouths.

As soon as she turned to look back at where he had stood, she began to wonder if her eyes and the darkness of the hallway had been deceiving her mixing with the grief her son having run away from home making her think that she had seen Adam standing there, because now the hallway was completely empty.

She stood up slowly and walked into the hallway where she had thought he had stood, accompanied by the others.

When she had thought she had seen Adam, it had been a most unusual sight, aside from the fact that he had been there one second and then gone the very next, but he was dressed oddly....almost like one of those super-heroes that she had seen on the news who protected Angel Grove from monster attacks,

Power Rangers she had heard them being called. He had been dressed as if he were a power ranger. The black power-ranger for that matter, wearing a ninja-like outfit.

Even though, Mrs. Park knew that had to be impossible, the Power-Rangers had been around for a long time before the whole family had moved to Angel Grove from Stone Canyon.

With a sigh she turned from the empty hallway and proceeded back into the kitchen. She had been imagining things. As if Adam would really just mysteriously return home, just as mysteriously and suddenly as he had run off. It would never happen.

* * *

The moon was shining bright over the vast Angel Grove Desert, as Adam left from the command center.

He felt like such an idiot.

He had been given a chance to tell his parents goodbye, and tell them everything. (Zordon had granted Adam permission to alert his parents about his alternate identity as the black power ranger, as long as they took a vow to never reveal his identity.)

That's where he had vanished to that afternoon, the command center, since Zordon had contacted him not too long after he had heard his mother walk in the front door, telling him that there was some things that Zordon needed to talk with him about, and some arrangements that needed to be made before he went off in pursuit of this mission.

He had the chance to say goodbye to his family and friends, to put not only their minds at ease, but his as well. The knowledge of not knowing what to expect on this mission gave way to the fear of dying on this mission and never seeing the people he cared about again.

The whole idea had haunted him since he awoke that afternoon, weighing heavily on his mind.

To just say goodbye to them would have helped him. That way he would know that if he did die, then his mother and father wouldn't have to be questioning his death, when word got around to them.

When Zordon had teleported him back to his house, he found his family and friends sitting around the table eating dinner. They were all laughing and talking cheerfully. As he was about to approach them, and say goodbye to them, he froze and began to think.

They seemed so happy right now, showing up and saying what pretty much could have been his final goodbye to them would destroy that. He wanted to go off into this mission with a memory of his friends and family together, happy.

He had decided that just for a little while before he left, he'd just stand in the shadows and watch them.

When his mother had turned and spotted him standing there, instead of doing what he should have done, which was come from where he was standing and say goodbye to his parents and friends, he retreated.

He just couldn't bring himself out of the shadows to speak to them, even if it was to say goodbye.

...Better leaving with a happy memory of them in his mind rather than the image of his mother with tears in her eyes.

Maybe it wasn't just that he wanted to have a good memory of his family and friends for this mission that kept him in the shadows and caused him to retreat, maybe it was also the fact that saying goodbye brought the reality of what could happen on this mission upon him.

So far though, he had just been wondering around in the dark desert. He had been out here in the desert brooding about his thoughts for the last few hours, and had covered a few miles.

Lucky for him, before he left Alpha had managed to make some modifications to his ranger suit and Ninja suit to keep him from freezing to death during the night and to keep himself from burning up during the day.

So far in this place, the most danger he had found came in the form of a couple of scurrying animals, and his own paranoia over the sounds of the wind blowing across the sand and against the cactuses.

Once he had managed to travel several miles away from the command center, around Midnight, Adam stopped and began to set up camp for that night. Even though he knew that Beelzalea's forces were probably out there in the desert too looking for what he was looking for it would probably take them just as long to find it, so stopping for the night wouldn't hurt, besides he was exhausted.

Adam could just tell that this mission was going to take some time, All he hoped as he adjusted the back-pack on his shoulders, was that he had managed to bring enough supplies to last him the duration of this mission.

If he hadn't found the person who had the missing power-coin by the time that the supplies ran out, he knew he could last a little longer out in the desert, but only a little while longer. If the supplies ran out before he finished his mission, he'd die of dehydration.

* * *

"Oooh! That pesky Black Ranger Adam is out in the desert looking for that missing power-coin!!" Rita shrieked as she quickly turned from her telescope and marched over to Beelzalea.

"Does it matter so much that he will begin a mission to find something that is already in someone else's hands?" Beelzalea asked breezily as she looked through a spell-book.

"Of course it does!! We can't have him getting that coin! Why haven't you sent something down to try keep him from finding that coin?" Rita asked angrily.

Minerva smiled as she sat up. "Because Beelzalea likes to toy with her subjects before destroying them."

Beelzalea continued to flip through the spell books. "Why attack or interfere when the moonlight is out? After all, the desert nights are more dangerous to a frog. "She stated calmly.

Quietly she stood up and in gliding steps travelled over to the balcony over-looking Earth.

"No. Tonight we'll let him alone, for he is much too tired, and cannot defend himself properly. It would be much too easy." She stated spaciously.

"Ah, Beelzalea! Always looking for a challenge to prove your superior strength over your subject." Minerva stated as she fanned herself with a bright green feather-fan. Her eyes were upon Beelzalea with a smirk.

That was her Chief Magi for her; always out to prove herself, even though she didn't have to.

Beelzalea smiled evilly down upon the Earth,

"Sleep safe and sound tonight little frog. After all we wouldn't want to lose you to ravenous animals so soon into your journey. "

"After all, I've just started to get to know you." She sneered evilly turning away from Earth.

She glided by Zedd quietly; her white eyes flashed red as they made contact with Zedd's eyes.

_Inferior being_, Beelzalea thought as she passed by Zedd, _Whatever made my Mistress Rita want to marry this creature? He calls himself a lord, but that is only a name, he has not royal blood in his veins like Mistress Rita. _

Beelzalea went back to her work space and picked up a crystal ball that had been resting among the books that she had been looking through earlier.

_...Him, the supreme ruler of the Universe? Ha! Don't even begin to make me laugh. He couldn't even take control of a speck of dust on the moon! It's a wonder that those Power Rangers haven't done more than foil his attempts for world Domination..._

_My Mistress Rita cannot possible have feelings of love toward that loathsome creature. No, for he is not fit to be the King of Earth when we finally destroy those Rangers. There are more vile monsters out there worthy of being your King my Mistress. Even if I have to dig them up from the dead depths of space myself._

Beelzalea looked out into space from where she stood, Yes, replacing that creature Rita called her husband would be easy enough. Changing Rita's mind would be just as easy. After all, the only thing she had to do was find someone, or something that Zedd hated more than anything.

As she casted a look to Zedd once more, and then to Earth she smiled. She knew just the thing to tear Rita and Zedd apart, now the only thing she had to do was bring it there, and manage to control it as for it not to double-cross her.

_Zedd, you pathetic excuse for evil, enjoy the last moments that your hand will be joined in marriage with my Mistress Rita. For when I am done with this, While My Mistress Rita shall be wed to the person that should rightfully rule alongside her, you shall be sent crawling to join the scum you belong with. _

* * *


	3. From Yellow to Orange

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to the Power Rangers

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* * *

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**Chapter Three: From Yellow to Orange**

Rocky furiously hit the punching bag today. Each thought that came to his head as his fist hit the bag reflected the anger were almost mirror images of one another. Every few punches were another piece added to the thoughts in his head. He still couldn't believe that Adam had just left like he did. Without a goodbye or anything.

They had been friends for several years, and close enough to be mistaken for being brothers. One time, it had to have been when they were in the third grade, an incident like this had happened, which turned out to be a rather embarrassing situation for their teacher. It had occurred on Parent-Teacher night and Rocky and his parents had shown up.

The teacher began to tell Mr. and Mrs. Desantos how Rocky was doing in the class, they mentioned that Rocky was doing just fine in class, he was a lively child and liked associating with the other kids, even if he did sometimes decide to be social at the most inappropriate of times, and sometimes caused minor disruptions in class.

"_But...I'm a little concerned about your other son, Adam_..." The teacher began. "_...he seems rather shy, during class presentations, and any type of social activity that we have in the class he tries to avoid, or just sits against the wall watching the other students. Plus, it seems that he is being bullied a lot by some of the other kids at this school."_

_"...Tell me, was Adam...adopted? If he was, then this might explain quite a few things, and maybe we can begin to work out a way to help Adam with these issues he's been having." _

Rocky watched his parent's faces turn questioned, as he tried to hold back laughter. The teacher really thought that Adam was his brother? _Ha!_ He thought that her first hint telling her that they weren't would be the different last names on the class roster, and that they were practically the same age.

When the teacher had been told, by Rocky's mother that Adam wasn't their child and was just Rocky's friend, she had begun to blush deeply, apologizing for the mistake.

Rocky hadn't ever mentioned that to Adam, since he and his parents had shown up much later, a long time after Rocky and his parents had left, and the incident had slipped through his mind by the next morning when he had seen Adam anyhow.

Until today that is, Rocky thought as he slammed his fist into the punching bag, nearly making Tommy stumble backwards as he held the back of it to try to keep the bag from swinging violently with each hit that it received.

The more he thought about the whole incident that had occurred yesterday the angrier Rocky became. Memories started to be brought to the surface of his mind that he had almost forgotten about until that moment.

"Rocko, you've gotta chill out, man." Tommy stated as dodged out of the way of an ill thrown punch at the bag that missed by several inches and caused Rocky to shoulder-ram the punching bag.

"...._Adam_..." Rocky growled throwing a punch at the bag once more.

_"...I thought he was_..." Another two punches.

"..._friend_..." Rocky's anger was starting to build as he pounded the bag that he could barely form a complete phrase in between his breathing.

"..._No Goodbye_..."

"_Just...leaves_."

Rocky had worn himself out by the end of this and just stood there looking at the ground, trying to calm himself down as he patted the sweat on his face away with a towel.

"Listen Rock, man, I'm sure Adam didn't mean anything by it. He probably had his own reasons for leaving the way he did, without saying anything. You can't let this get to you." Tommy stated as he handed a water-bottle to his fellow ranger.

Rocky took a long drink from the water-bottle and then heaved a huge sigh, trying to catch his breath again.

"Aisha and I were his friends...and him just leaving like that without a word pisses me off. I mean it's almost as if the entire team, especially me and Aisha, just weren't worth a goodbye. If we're not worth a goodbye, then it makes me wonder if our friendship was even worth it." Rocky stated in between breaths as he tried to calm down.

Tommy put his hand on his friend's shoulder, looking down at the teenager, his brown eyes trying to show that he knew what Rocky was going through.

As he led Rocky over to the counter, offering to pay for shakes for them both Tommy tried to think of something to say to make the Red Ranger feel better.

There wasn't anything that he actually could do. No matter what he said Rocky wasn't going to rid himself of this anger, and depression that he was feeling toward Adam right now. The only thing that would help would be for Rocky to confront Adam, (preferably a still living Adam.) about this whole situation.

Adam better have a pretty good damn reason for what he did. Tommy thought as he glanced over his shoulder to where Rocky was sitting at a table with his fist clenched staring at the entrance angrily, as if Adam was going to walk in through that door in the next few seconds.

Otherwise, Rocky is probably going to make him wish that he had died in that desert.

* * *

The sun had been up for awhile and was glaring down on the sands. The air was distorted with suffocating waves of heat; it must have been well over 100 degrees out here this day.

Adam stopped briefly, to catch his breath and wipe the sweat that had begun to appear on his forehead.

Even though his ninja outfit had been modified to keep him from burning up, he could still feel the heat of the day every time he took in a breath. The heat suffocated him, almost as if he were breathing into a pillow.

He looked toward the horizon, so far there was nothing. Just patches of dead grass and shrubs, a couple of decaying trees and cactuses. There didn't seem to be any sign of life out here, other than himself and occasional scurrying animals.

This was hopeless. He thought frowning at the desert, looking behind him, he could no longer see the command center in the distance anymore.

Beelzalea has probably already found that power-coin and it's in her possession. Adam thought bitterly as he continued on.

This whole mission was rather ridiculous once he had really thought about it. The Angel Grove desert was just too enormous for one person to be searching for someone else, without even the slightest clue as to where that person was.

Suddenly a screech filled the air, as several Tengu swooped down upon Adam. Along with them several putty.

Must be Beelzalea's trademark, Adam thought as he dropped his bag and fell into a defensive stance, ready to defend himself whenever the first Tengu or Putty decided to make its move.

Rita had the Putties, Zedd had the Tengu, and so now Beelzalea had both.

This was just proof to Adam that Beelzalea had not yet tracked down the missing power-coin. No one would send down Tengu and Putties to attack someone who was looking for the same thing that they were looking for, if they already had it.

"Alright, come get me." Adam said with a smirk as he looked around at all the Tengu and putties that were surrounding him.

There were about four Tengu, and six putties. The putties would be easily enough taken out, since they were easy enough to beat, even without his Ninja-Ranger powers.

The Tengu would be a challenge, even though there were four of them he would have to face them all, and on top of that this heat would end up causing a bit of a challenge.

Nothing that he couldn't work past though. Plus, lucky for him, his Ninja suit gave him some abilities that he didn't have un-morphed.

One of the Tengu rushed at him, quickly Adam slide-teleported, using his ninja powers, out of the way, causing that Tengu to crash into a Putty, and obliterating it.

Two Tengu and a Putty decided to attack. They ganged up on Adam, surrounding him, throwing punches. A cloud of dust had begun to be kicked up by the flailing wings and arms of the Tengu and Putties that charged at Adam.

Among the chaos that had begun to stir up, Adam had once more used his Ninja-ranger powers to slip out from the crowd, appearing behind them, watching them beat each other up, and thinking that they had the black ranger.

It didn't take too long for the Tengu and Putties to realize that the Black Ranger was not there. They turned and began to look around quickly to see where he had disappeared off to.

Adam fell out of the air, knocking two Tengu to the ground, and proceeded to take out a Putty with a swift punch to the chest.

One of the putties lunged at him, but was quickly stopped by a karate-chop to the chest, and fell squirming on the ground until it broke to pieces.

"Beelzalea must be trying to keep me busy...These guys are too easy." Adam stated aloud after he high kicked a Putty into the air and turning around and tripping another one before landing his fist down onto the clay monster's chest.

As the battle continued, Adam managed to take out all of the putty forces, and like he figured, the Tengu forces were a little more a challenge.

The heat was starting to get him, suffocating him, and making him become exhausted quickly.

Suddenly the Tengu took off flying away, retreating even though they had the upper hand once more.

Adam watched them retreat trying to recover his breath, taking his Ninja mask off. He spotted his back-pack of supplies. Unfortunately, it appeared that in the midst of the battle, a couple of the Tengu had ripped it to shreds, and stolen most of its contents before they had left.

Looking at what was left, Adam guessed he had enough supplies to last him, no longer than one night. Of course, that was given that he could survive the rest of the day without water, since the Tengu had only left him with a single bottle of water.

Beelzalea had this planned to happen. Adam just knew it. She had sent the Tengu and Putties knowing that he would fight them, and while the battle was going on, have a couple of the Tengu and Putties rob him of the supplies he had brought that were necessary for survival out here in the desert.

If that was the case, then Adam knew that he would have to hurry and find the missing power-coin. There was no telling what evil plot she was going to think of next in order to keep him from getting what he had come into the desert to find.

* * *

Beelzalea smiled passively down at the earth. The Tengus and Putties had done a perfect job. Stealing that human's survival supplies was a perfect way to begin the slow torture. He was already slowly dying the longer that he spent out there in the desert.

"You still haven't stopped that Ranger! What if he finds that Power-coin?" Rita asked/screeched as she approached the white-haired Magi.

She only smiled and folded her hands in her lap, "My Mistress Rita. It does not matter if he finds that power-coin. Its power is useless in our hands anyhow, without the others. "She stated simply.

Rita growled and then turned away.

"...Trust me Mistress Rita. The world will soon be yours to conquer." Beelzalea stated as she watched Rita leave the room.

_All I have to do first is finish sculpting a body for your new husband, and summon his soul into it. _Beelzalea sneered evilly as she began to shape the clay before her.

* * *

Another Afternoon, another hunt. She thought as walked through the desert.

She might as well enjoy hunting the food that she had grown accustom too while she could. There wasn't any telling what these humans outside of the desert ate...if anything at all.

Today was a hot and stuffy day, normal for the desert. The air usually was heavy with the heat, yet today the air seemed heavier than normal.

The girl shivered as she continued walking. Normally if the air was this heavy, with something that was not the heat of the day; it meant that wolves were nearby. That's how Ceres had always told her how to tell when there were wolves around.

She just hopped that she wouldn't run into them. If living in the desert had taught her anything it was not to cross paths with a hungry wolf. She had watched Ceres lose several family members to these creatures.

After a few minutes of walking, she stopped and begun to sniff at the air. The scent was curious; almost like the scent she identified frogs with, and then again at the same time a completely different one all together.

Whatever it was it was coming closer in her direction....it would be there soon. That was if it didn't get eaten by the snake that was waiting for him a couple meters in front of him.

* * *

Adam stumbled along the sands of the desert, trying to keep himself standing. Things were going really bad for him right now. Not only had he been robbed of the supplies that he had brought with him at the beginning, but the water-bottle that he had been left with had a hole punctured into the side, so even that was gone.

Death was imminent for him, if he didn't find an oasis where water might be soon.

Vultures were circling over head awaiting the teenager in black's death, so they could fill their stomachs with the flesh which they would tear from him as they devoured him, to leave nothing but a skeleton.

Adam could almost feel their waiting eyes upon him hungrily anticipating his downfall.

A low hiss reached his ears as he continued to walk. The hiss caused him to stop immediately and look ahead at him.

If the vultures didn't get to him when the desert killed him, then the large snake that now blocked his path would.

Seeing the dark eyes that were focused on him made Adam's blood freeze. His feet became rooted to the desert floor. His eyes transfixed upon the pair that looked back at him.

He couldn't move at all, knowing that if he moved the snake would come forward and sink its teeth into him.

* * *

"I wonder how Adam's doing." Aisha stated as she and the others set up their beach umbrellas.

Kat, Tommy, and Billy had decided on having a picnic at the beach to try to help Aisha and Rocky cheer up. After a long time of walking the teens had managed to find a deserted spot on the beach, away from the crowd.

Not many people usually came to this spot since it was so difficult to get to, which made it perfect for the Rangers to enjoy some time without being interrupted by the other people, and could talk about all the adventures they had as rangers without having to worry about people listening in.

"He's probably dead." Rocky stated angrily sitting down on the sand. It was obvious that he was going to try resisting the whole purpose of this trip in any which way he could.

"...Well, with an attitude like that, he might as well be. How do you think he'd feel to know that his best friend had already given up on him?" Kat stated as she began to unpack the food that they had brought along with him.

Billy sat down and began to push buttons on the device that he had brought along with him, (it was his latest invention.) "Adam should be fine. Alpha told me that he came by the Command Center last night before he left. Alpha made some modifications to his ninja outfit and ranger suit before he left, so he wouldn't burn up during the day or freeze at night. Plus, Zordon made sure that he had enough supplies to last for the trip."

Aisha lay down on the beach looking up at the sky. The information that she had been told by Billy made her feel a little bit better, but not completely.

"Hey, Billy what's that?" Kat asked suddenly, trying to change the subject away from Adam. The invention that Billy was messing with was the first thing that came into her sight, and was as good a place as any to begin to steer the topic of conversation away from their missing friend.

Billy didn't even look up from the invention as he began to explain, and demonstrate to them what it did.

"It's kind of a hand-held video screen, and computer, and analyzer. It still needs a little more work to get a couple of the bugs out of it, but once I establish the connection with the morphing grid we should be able to use this to see what any one of us is seeing at any given moment and make records of various missions we go on." He explained.

"If I can get it working properly, it may come in handy in the future. We can replay any recording we make, and use the computer to help analyze the recordings. Plus, if any of us ended up lost or missing we might be able to use these to get a general idea of the place that one of us is at, and use the Analyzer to try to get an idea of the location." Billy continued on.

"So, sort of like Miniature Portable Viewing Globes, only enhanced a little bit, Right Billy?" A voice asked from behind the rangers.

The sound of the voice caused them all to jump; they hadn't heard anyone show up behind them. For half a second they almost believed that they were being attacked.

Of course, standing behind them wasn't a monster ready to attack them, instead it was a rather familiar and friendly face that none of them had seen in quite a while. The person standing there had dark hair that was pulled back into two pigtails tied together with large Yellow Rubber-bands.

"Trini?! Trini Kwan?!" Billy asked as he got to his feet and approached the Vietnamese teenager who had shown up. "God, it's been ages since we've last heard from you! What're you doing here in Angel Grove? I thought you were in Switzerland on that Peace-conference thing." He asked in a joyous shock at the sight of his old friend.

"Well, the Peace-conference was only going to last a few years, before going on a break for a couple of years. I decided that during my time off I'd come back here and see what's been going on in Angel Grove while I've been away." Trini stated with a wide smile as she gave Billy and the others hugs.

"I stopped by your house to surprise you, but your mom and dad told me that you and a couple of friends had come down to the beach, so I figured that you guys would be here, and so here I am!"

She glanced over at Kat briefly as soon as she came to her.

"I'm sorry...We haven't met. I'm Trini Kwan....It's good to meet you..."She began as she slowly trailed off, leaving room for Kat to introduce herself.

"Katherine. Katherine Hillard. It's nice to meet you Trini, Billy and the others have told me so much about you." She stated cheerfully shaking Trini's hand.

Billy nodded and motioned toward Kat, "Yeah, Kat's the new Pink Ranger."

He then began to explain to Trini exactly how Kimberly had left the team and how Kat had taken up Kimberly's role as the Pink Ranger.

"So, what about Jason and Zack, haven't heard from them have you?" Tommy asked curiously after a few minutes of Trini explaining all about the peace-conference and all that she had been doing the last few years.

Trini leaned back in the sand. "I can't say. Jason, Zack and I haven't really been able to get together for the last few weeks, so I'm not sure if either of them were planning on coming back to Angel Grove." She stated with a sigh as she looked out over the ocean waves.

It was silent as they all began to set up the picnic blanket.

"So, how's it been being rangers?" Trini asked after a few seconds breaking the silence that had fallen among them all as they began to explain to her about all the things that had happened to them ever since she had left.

* * *

"Rito." Beelzalea stated as she entered the Prison hall, where Rito stood looking in on the monsters that were inside the cells feasting on the dead carcass of some alien creature. This place had once been the Prison, but ever since they had arrived on the Moon, they hadn't really gotten any prisoners, so they just used this place as a place to keep the monsters.

Rito turned and crossed his arms.

"Cute little fellas aren't they?" He asked motioning toward the monsters in the cells.

Beelzalea gave a small off-handed nod and a brief glance towards these monsters. Particularly they were just beasts to her, nothing cute about them.

"The Power rangers who have been left behind seem rather bored..." She stated after a few seconds of silence.

Rito scratched his head, not quite sure of what Beelzalea wanted him to do.

_Typical_, Beelzalea thought._ Rito Revolto, the idiot half-brother of my Mistress Rita! Could never understand the simplest of commands or suggestions even if they were written down on a piece of paper in front of him. Had my Mistress Minerva stayed with Master Vile, perhaps this Halloween decoration would be a little more intelligent than he is now_.

_Of course had he been born of Mistress Minerva and my Ex-master Vile, I would be having to call this moron Young Master._

_But I suppose that even My Ex-master Vile's son, is in a way is more tolerable than My Mistress Rita's husband. _

"My Mistress Minerva, and Your sister Rita agree that you and Goldar have seemed bored in the recent days, perhaps you might like to join the Power-rangers on their little picnic at the beach...entertain them for awhile. In fact, you can even take along one of these delightful creatures to make things more interesting." Beelzalea stated.

She could almost see the light bulb of understanding go off in Rito's head as he finally made sense of her words.

"Ah! You want me and Goldar to go and attack the Power rangers!" He stated as the meaning of Beelzalea's words finally dawned on him.

Beelzalea nodded.

"Can do, Ma'am. In fact I think I've got just the monster to take down to Earth with me!" Rito stated cheerfully as he crossed his arms and nodded. He and one of the monsters in the cage vanished.

Beelzalea sighed as she approached the bars of one of the cells. With Rito gone, it would be easier to gather ingredients from this dungeon.

_Soon these dungeons shall house both humans and these beasts, for when Rita and her new husband come and finally take over the Earth, this place should be the final resting place for many of those Earthlings who will try to stand against my Mistress...and perhaps, even the final resting place for those Power Rangers...and the very Lord Zedd they once tried so hard to defeat!_ Beelzalea mused, allowing a grin to spread across her face and a psychotic laugh escape her lips.

* * *

Adam was trying to keep his cool, even though being faced by a pair of what were probably venomous fangs was rather unnerving.

To add to that, his common sense was beginning to leave him, due to the delirium, (created by lack of proper-oxygen to his brain because he was too terrified to even realize that he hadn't exhaled a breath in the last few minutes), dehydration and fatigue that were beginning to take their toll on him.

Losing his balance, Adam stumbled forward, falling to his knees, this sudden movement startled the snake, prompting it to attack.

It lunged at Adam's wrist. It was almost as if the world had begun to move in slow motion. He could see the snake opening its mouth, springing forward to take hold of his wrist, ready to sink its potentially deadly teeth through the cloth of his Ninja outfit and through the skin.

As the teeth sunk deep into his skin, he felt a white hot pain begin to shoot through his body, for the snakes head being about half as large as his own wrist, the pain was intense.

_This thing must really think that I'm a frog..._ Adam thought as he felt the snake attempt to dig its teeth in deeper to Adam's wrist.

_Well, this is a way to die, either bleed to death from a wrist wound, or die slowly and even more painfully from poison._

Thwack!

Well, that certainly wasn't the sound he was expecting to hear, especially not preceding the feeling of the teeth leaving his wrist in one quick, painful motion.

Adam grasped his wrist, putting pressure on the wound to attempt to stop the bleeding. Even though he knew that wouldn't have really done any help if the snake he had just been bitten by was really venomous.

Looking up, he saw the snake glaring angrily at another person. This person carried a spear in her hands, while wearing what appeared to be a ripped up pair of shorts and a shirt. Although both garments were a little too tight on her, and in no real condition to be worn any more

Her black hair was unkempt and hung down to her feet and, like the rest of her, was matted with sand and dirt.

Slowly the girl circled the snake, as it watched her. She growled at it for a few minutes waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

* * *

When she found the moment, she leapt into the air and slammed her spear into the snake's head, causing blood to begin to ooze from the creature's head, as it still wriggled and writhed before dying.

After she had killed the snake she stood for several seconds, with her back turned to Adam.

She sniffed the air briefly and looked down at her hand before turning toward where Adam was.

In a couple of strides she had made her way over to him, the spear still in her hand, she noticed the blood that was covering Adam's arm. (He had morphed out of his Ninja ranger outfit during the girl's battle with the snake; he had just been too weak to keep himself in Ninja form.)

The girl laid the spear at her side and pried the hand that Adam was clutching the wound with from the wounded wrist. She examined the wound, and then looked back at the dead snake's body.

Without warning she ripped a patch of cloth from what remained of the lower half of her shirt, and tied it around the wound.

"T-thanks." Adam stated, still take by shock of the sudden appearance of this stranger.

The girl didn't even respond to him as she got to her feet, and took hold of his hand, forcing him to his feet, and taking the spear up with one hand, and walking back over to the snake, picking it up and placing it in the bag at her hip with the other before turning toward the confused teenager standing before her.

She glanced at him once more evaluating him.

_Yes. This is him that human I met here a few days ago. He's not doing so well though. _She thought with a sigh.

Adam noticed the girl take a deep breath as she opened her mouth to begin to speak to him.

However, what came from her mouth was a random assortment of sounds that didn't even sound like any language on Earth. It kind of made Adam think of how some children sound when they are first learning to speak.

"I'm sorry...I...don't understand." He apologized, hoping that this girl could at least comprehend English, even if she couldn't speak it.

It appeared that she understood him, because she began to look around to try to explain what she had just attempted to say to him through another means.

She withdrew the snake from the bag at her hip, pointing at its teeth and then to the bandaged wound on Adam's wrist. From there she went into an attempt at acting like she was poisoned and dying, but recovered quickly from it, shaking her head.

Once she had finished she put the snake back in the bag at her hip, and crossed her arms tilting her head to the side, almost as if asking if he understood what she had been trying to say.

"Are you trying to say, that the snake was poisonous?" He asked.

She had picked the worst person to use charades as a means of communication with, Adam thought. He had never been good at playing charades; he was never good at guessing what someone was trying to say through different motions.

The girl sighed and shook her head.

"..So the snake was not poisonous?" Adam asked slowly taking the headshake to mean that he had misinterpreted what the girl had said.

She smiled and nodded.

The news was a relief to Adam; at least he knew he wasn't going to die of a snake bite.

But that still didn't mean that he was in the clear as far as his life was concerned. There was still the fact that he hadn't had anything to drink in the last few hours, and minimal supplies. Plus, the bandage that this girl had made for him to keep pressure on the wound, to stop the bleeding and soak up the blood would only help the wound so much, and he had nothing in what he had managed to salvage from the first aid-kit to treat it with.

There was still a chance that the wound could get infected, and he could die that way.

_Gee, what a way of looking at things Adam._ He thought.

The girl pointed at Adam, and made a sound that curiously sounded slightly like the word name although Adam couldn't be too sure.

"You want to know my name?" He asked curiously.

The girl nodded, confirming that what Adam had believed he heard was what he heard.

"I'm Adam. Adam Park...It's nice to meet you...um." He stated quietly hold out his un-injured hand to the girl who stood in front of him.

She eyed his hand suspiciously, not sure exactly if he was threatening her, or trying to show some sort of human gesture of greeting.

Adam withdrew his hand after a few seconds, realizing that it was still covered with blood, before trying to clean most of the blood off using his shirt... _Well, this certainly is making things awkward_, he thought

"Aaahhmm." The girl said which Adam guessed was just this girl's way of trying to learn his name, even if it did sound more like she was clearing her throat more than anything else.

"Yeah...close enough." he replied off-handedly.

The girl nodded and began to walk past Adam.

_I hope Ceres won't mind me taking him here back to camp. He needs help after all, and most of our supplies are back at the camp._

Adam wasn't sure if he should follow this girl, or not. He had a feeling that he should, because she might be the person that he was looking for, or she could lead him to a place with water or supplies, or anything so that he could continue his search for at least another few days.

Before he had any chance to take so much as a step to follow this girl where ever she was heading, a blinding pain shot through his head, and he fell to the ground unconscious. As the world around him started to go black, he saw the girl standing over him, drawing her spear back to her side.

_Damn_…Adam thought as he blacked out. Well, at least she just hit him with the pole of the spear, and didn't stab him with it.

The girl knelt down and using all the strength she had, managed to lift Adam to his feet, and began to slowly walk with him in the direction of the camp where Ceres waited.

* * *

"..And so that is pretty much all that has happened since you guys left." Aisha finished.

Trini nodded understandably as she looked out at the ocean. Hearing about all the adventures that Billy and the others had ever since she, Jason, and Zack had left, caused a slight twinge of nostalgia to occur in her heart.

She remembered the days when they had all worked together as a team, calling out "Saber tooth Tiger!" as she held out her morpher, (although, from what she had been told from Aisha...if she were still the Yellow Power Ranger she would be saying "The Bear" or Calling out "Yellow Ranger Power!") being surrounded by a bright yellow glow as the yellow ranger gear that she had once sported appeared.

She remembered how awesome it was when the Zords were summoned, and to be in control of the Saber tooth Tiger Zord. Knowing exactly what to do, because the Yellow Ranger power was in control acting on pure instinct.

As Trini thought about it, she realized just how much she actually missed being a Power-Ranger.

Of course, did she regret taking up the opportunity to go and be one of the three people representing Angel Grove, and the United States in the World Peace conference in Switzerland? Of course not! After all it wasn't ever day that out of a thousand other people she would have been picked to participate in a peace-conference.

Plus, if she had refused the opportunity to go to the Peace-conference and had stayed in Angel Grove as a Power-Ranger then Aisha would never have been given the opportunity to be a Power Ranger. To add to that Trini believed that she would have been wondering how things would have turned out had she left, if she had stayed.

* * *

"Well, Well! If it isn't the Power Rangers!"

Everyone leapt to their feet at the sound of that voice, turning to see who exactly was addressing them.

Standing up at the top of the hill was Rito and Goldar, next to them was a monster that Trini recognized right away.

It had been one that she had faced back in her days as the yellow ranger: it was an oversized bug, with huge red eyes, and scythe like hands. Better known as Mantis.

"We heard you all were a little bored, and thought you might like to join us in a little game." Rito called from down the hill that he and Goldar had been standing on.

"Yeah? Well, we don't wanna play your game, because you don't play fair." Rocky stated pointing at the three villains who had appeared closer to the Rangers.

"That's too bad, Red Ranger! You're gonna join in on the fun whether you want to or not." Goldar stated withdrawing his sword, and pointing it at Rocky.

"Trini, you'd better get out of here and somewhere safe. This could get ugly." Aisha stated turning toward Trini.

Agreeing, Trini took off towards some of the higher sandbanks nearby. Although, she could fight, she knew she didn't want to try to face Goldar, this Rito Guy, and Mantis without the aid of Ranger-Power.

"Alright guys, let's do it! It's morphing time!" Tommy shouted as he and the others withdrew their morphers, holding them out in front of them. Summoning the energy that lay in each of them.

"White Ranger Power!"

"Pink Ranger Power!"

"Blue Ranger Power!"

"Yellow Ranger Power!"

"Red Ranger Power!"

A series of colorful lights appeared from the Power coins, surrounding the five teens as each one shouted out their respected color.

When the lights cleared, the five Rangers stood there ready for the battle, weapons in hand.

From where Trini stood, peering over the edge of a sand-bank, it almost reminded her of when that had been her down there in Aisha's place. It was like looking back at a few years ago, from some weird out of body experience. That had been her down there, wielding the Power-Daggers, charging into the fight.

Mantis recognized the Yellow Ranger outfit, and made it its main focus to attack her. Despite the fact that the person wearing the suit was not the same person who had defeated it years back.

It sliced at Aisha's suit with its razor sharp claws, sending Aisha flying through the air, and into Billy.

Rocky was engaged in a sword battle against Goldar. Much to Rocky's surprise he was fending off Goldar exceptionally well, landing several strikes to the armored monkey's chest. All he had to do was channel his anger at Adam and focus it into his weapon.

At the same time that Rocky was engaged in battle, Kat was in a duel with Rito, and by the looks of things, it wasn't going so well. Most of the Power-blaster beams had been reflecting off of the skeleton and bouncing in every other direction.

Kat took a hit, at the same time that Rocky had managed to break from his duel with Goldar with a duck and a spin.

"Mind if I cut in?" Rocky joked as he spun into a duel with Rito, slicing at him with the power-sword.

Rito, obviously not amused with that joke, managed to land a hit on Rocky, tossing him to the ground with a loud thud.

Tommy leapt into the air and fell onto Mantis's back, stabbing it in the shoulder with Saba.

This attack enraged the Mantis creature, as it howled with pain and began to vigorously shake the white ranger from its back.

After a few powerful shakes Tommy was thrown from the monster's back, taking his dagger with him.

Although the White Ranger had just attacked it, Mantis did not find the person who inflicted its injury half as interesting as he found the Yellow Power Ranger.

Aisha managed to block the Mantis's razor sharp claws with her Power-Daggers, stabbing it in the stomach, although it did little good.

Pushing Aisha away from it, the Mantis creature slammed its claws into the ground, causing explosions to appear beneath all the rangers, sending them into the air, and bringing them to the sand once more with thud.

* * *

"Oh! No! Zordon!" Alpha stated in shock as he watched the whole scene unfold before him on the viewing globe.

Zordon didn't seem panicked by what he saw on the viewing globe. Of course, rarely did he express his worry for the teenagers, he always had faith that they would pull through this battle, even if the odds were against them.

"Alpha, Teleport Trini to the Command Center immediately."Zordon stated calmly.

Alpha nodded and began to push a few buttons on the console nearby. In a quick flash of yellow, Trini appeared in the center of the command center, looking a little confused and shocked that she was back in a place that she hadn't been in years.

"Zordon! Alpha!" She stated in shock and joy as she saw them both. Although it was clear upon her face that she believed this reunion should have been under better circumstances, she was still worried about the other rangers.

"Trini, as you are well aware, the other rangers are in danger, and require assistance."Zordon began, looking down at Trini with a serious look on his face. He looked just the way that Trini had remembered him.

She took a step forward, "But Zordon. I can't help. I gave my Ranger Power to Aisha, remember?" She asked and stated at the same time.

Suddenly an orange light appeared before her, taking form of a morpher, similar to the morpher that she had once possessed as the Yellow Ranger. Inside it was a Power-coin.

"As a former Ranger, you were a perfect candidate to receive the powers of one of the unclaimed power-coins. This morpher is now yours, as it the power that goes with it. The Powers of the Orange Tiger Ranger."

Trini smiled as she took the morpher. Great! Now she could go and help the others out.

She held out the morpher in front of her, she could feel her heart pounding with joy and excitement over the fact that she was getting a chance to be a ranger again.

"It's Morphing time! Orange Ranger Power!"

An Orange light shot from the coin in the morpher, and spread over Trini's body, changing her normal clothing into a ranger outfit, much like her former Yellow Ranger outfit, only Orange.

As Trini morphed she was teleported back to the beach. When she arrived in Ranger gear, she found that she also had her weapons in hand, a pair of bladed tonfa weapons.

_

* * *

_

Alright! Let's do this!

Trini thought cheerfully as she leapt from the sand-bank where she had been teleported to.

"Here...we...go!!" She shouted cheerfully as she tackled the Mantis creature, sticking both the blades of her tonfa into the creature's back, and creating large gashes and explosions as she sliced through the Bug-like creature.

Billy got to his feet slowly, like the others, quiet stunned about the appearance of this new Ranger. None of them recognized her as being Trini, since they had almost forgotten all about her since she had gone and found a safe place to hide.

"A new Ranger on the scene? Well, that's our cue to split! Have fun with 'em Mantis!" Rito shouted as he and Goldar vanished.

Mantis was angered by the fact that it had been surprised attacked by the Orange Ranger and being left to face six rangers alone. It began to wildly slice at Trini and the others, showing its displeasure.

"Little help here guys?" Trini asked as she narrowly avoided being hit by the Mantis's swinging arms.

Aisha drew out her daggers, and rushed at Mantis, attacking its face, at the same time that Trini attacked the creature's legs. This combined forced of the Power-weapons created a large explosion, which obliterated Mantis.

_Ah, now that brings back memories!_ Trini thought with a reminiscent sigh as she reached for her helmet.

"Thanks for your help earlier. We would have been finished if it weren't for you!" Billy stated as Trini began to unlatch her helmet.

As the Helmet came off, Trini watched her fellow Ranger's faces express their shock in realizing that they had just been saved by the Former Yellow Ranger, and now Current (and first) Orange Ranger.

"Anytime, after all, what are Power-Rangers for?" She stated with a wink.

Aisha smiled cheerfully as she patted Trini on the back, congratulating her predecessor to the Yellow Ranger Powers on returning to the team.

Trini smiled, and ran her fingers through her hair. It was great to be back as a Ranger she thought, even if the Ranger Power wasn't the one that she had originally had.

"Welcome back Trini!" Billy stated cheerfully. It was always great to have a familiar face from the old days back on the team. Someone that he knew at least understood him.

Tommy held out his hand to Trini, "It's great to have you back." He said as Trini took his hand, and shook it; before he brought her closer to him, patting her on the back with his free hand, while embracing her in a brief, friendly, hug.

"It's great to be back." Trini stated cheerfully.

"Looks like you're the new-girl on the team this time. Guess we've gotta show you the ropes then huh?" Aisha teased playfully nudging Trini in the shoulder with her fist.

Trini laughed. "Yeah right! There are some things that I'll never forget, and how to be a Power-ranger is one of them!"

* * *


	4. A Night at the Movies

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to power rangers.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 4: A Night at the Movies**

"You had a chance to destroy those Rangers with Mantis, and you fled?! What were you thinking you insufferable morons?" Zedd asked angrily as he looked down at Rito and Goldar from the throne he sat on.

Goldar bowed to Zedd, as he spoke, explaining everything. "There was a new ranger. She appeared out of nowhere, and started attacking!"

"There were still only Six Rangers, You, Rito and Mantis could have easily destroyed those Rangers." Zedd continued.

He was furious to know that Goldar and Rito had both passed up a chance to destroy the Rangers. Just when they had the Rangers at a disadvantage, they came running back to the base.

Goldar just bowed, his eyes looking down at the ground. He knew his Lord was displeased with him returning, and knew that he had no real good explanation for why they had run at the time that they had.

"Goldar and Rito have done nothing wrong that deserves such a punishment as a scolding. It was Rita, Beelzalea and Mine's orders for them to go entertain the rangers. Not to destroy them." Minerva stated as she walked into the room.

Zedd stood up. "..And why not destroy the rangers while we have the chance?" He asked.

Minerva smiled as she fanned herself, and began to pace the room. "Because, three of the Power-coins still remain un-activated. Beelzalea plans for all the power-Coins to be active before we even attempt to get them into our possession... You destroy six of the seven activated power-coins and you lose all of the power."

Zed growled. Beelzalea. If he didn't know any better, he would swear that she was trying to make sure the attempt to destroy the Power-Rangers failed on purpose. Of course for whatever reason that would be, he could not think of.

As he dismissed Goldar and Minerva from the room, he recalled the incident that had happened a while back, when their eyes had met, hers turning red upon contact with him. Usually her eyes changed to match the color of objects with life-forces, and so it was no surprise that when they had come across Zedd they had changed to a radiating red color.

Aside from that however there seemed to have been a distasteful gaze in her eyes. She didn't like him one bit, Zedd could tell. If she was planning something behind their backs, he would have to keep an eye out for it, and prepare himself to foil her plans.

...and what a better way to ruin a secretive plan than by having your own plan going on to eliminate her at the same time? Zedd laughed inwardly as he began to formulate a plan in his head.

* * *

Night had fallen by the time that Adam awoke. He found himself staring up at charred metal, which opaquely reflected the light of a fire. From pieces of the metal ceiling that had been torn away, he could see the night sky and the moon high above.

He had been out for quite a while. He thought as he sat up. He rubbed the back of his head; it was still a little sore from the impact that had knocked him out in the first place. Where was he? He wondered as he began to look around the room.

From what he could see of the room in the pale fire-light, it appeared that he was in what appeared to be the remains of a bedroom, in a destroyed home.

He looked down at his wrist, surprised to find that it had been re-bandaged with a clean cloth and had received a bit of first-aid.

As he looked around the room, he noticed that the place was a mess. Books lay scattered and charred all around the room. The bed that he had awoken on was ripped up. There was really no way for anybody to inhabit this building anymore.

He wondered what had happened to this place, where ever it was.

Turning to the side-table next to the bed, he saw a canteen sitting there. He picked it up and sniffed at the contents to make sure that what was in the canteen was water before taking a drink from it.

The water was still fairly cold, meaning that it was still fairly fresh which didn't really matter to Adam, it was water none the less and a major relief to his dry throat.

Once he had finished drinking, he noticed a book that had been lying on the table beside the canteen.

Picking it up and opening it, he began to read out of curiosity from a random spot.

"_When I first found the medallion, I believed it to be made of Gold, or at least a metal that was the same color, and retained some of the same properties as Gold. After several months of research, comparing the molecular components to that of almost every metal known to man on this Earth, I have reached the conclusion that this medallion is composed of an alien metal that is not of this Earth or at least is extremely rare on this Earth. It may have been a prehistoric metal that was mined by Early Civilizations long ago._

_The Carving upon the medallion depicts a creature, which I have now been able to identify as the Raptor. Although, I have not been able to find any records of the true purpose of this fascinating Medallion, I believe it may have been the some special item in the rituals of early civilization during the prehistoric age, or of inter-galactic beings. Additional research is required." _

Adam continued to read down the page, Who ever had written this must have been talking about the power-coin. At least he knew he was on the right track to finding that person who had the power-coin.

"_With research aside, my wife and I celebrated our daughter's birthday today. It is a joy that today, at the age of two my daughter...... (_This small section containing what Adam guessed to be this person's daughter's name, was burnt out by fire so the name was illegible) _is doing wonderful. She's looking more and more like her mother every day. She's so sweet and innocent, and curious about the world around her, it makes me anxious to see what type of person she will become in the future. _

_..But at the same time, I fear that she will probably grow up too quickly. But, I suppose it's not much to be worried about. Just a Parent concerned about the future of his daughter." _From there the rest of the journal was burnt badly.

Adam lay the book aside and walked out of the room, to explore the rest of this place. Of course there really wasn't much left to explore of this building, Adam came to soon find out. Half of the house had caved in due to fire, so as soon as he stepped outside the door he found himself, in a half-destroyed Living room, which led directly outside.

The girl who he had met earlier that day was sitting in front of a fire, with a rabbit at her side.

She seemed to be aware of Adam's presence because she motioned for him to sit down.

As soon as he did she handed him something that was speared on the end of a stick. She signaled that it was something that was supposed to be eaten, by taking a bite off of the object that she had in front of her.

Although, Adam didn't really know what exactly he was he was being told to eat, he figured that he'd better just eat it. After all, if it didn't seem like it was poisonous to the girl whenever she had taken a bite of the same thing.

It didn't taste that bad. A little weird.

"Snake." The girl stated simply, pointing at the object that she had given to Adam.

He was surprised that this girl had said something comprehensible, even if it was just telling him what he had eaten.

Hearing that what he had eaten was a snake, caused Adam's stomach to turn slightly for a brief moment, knowing that he was probably eating the very snake that had attacked him, and made him consider not finishing it.

Although, Adam decided against it taking into consideration that he hadn't eaten all day, and didn't really have much in the way of food when it came to supplies, thanks to the Tengu and Putties, and so he probably should be grateful that he was even able to eat anything, (even if it was a snake) at all.

"_You know, not many people wander this far out into the desert." _He heard a voice state in his head.

Adam looked over, to see the rabbit that was sitting between him and the girl, looking at him, as if it were talking to him.

"_Who are you?"_ Adam thought curiously, replying to the voice.

"_They call me Ceres. Yes. I am a rabbit, and I do have minor psychic power. I understand that you may find this to be very unbelievable. But even what you humans consider to be wild Animals do have the potential to tap into extra-ordinary powers, ESP...I believe you call it. Or at least something of that matter." _

Adam put his hand on his head. In all honesty, this whole incident was starting to get a little weird. Talking to Frogs in dreams was one thing, Talking to Rabbits with the ability to communicate through people's minds in reality...well that was a whole different story.

"_So, My Child here tells me that she found you in the desert. You were in terrible condition. Gotten attacked by a snake. Tell me, why are you out here in the desert?" _

"I'm looking for someone, who is carrying something valuable. I was told that I might find this person in the desert that this person was expecting to see me. I mean, even though, we've never met. "He replied to Ceres' question as he looked up at the sky.

_"Ah, so you are the person that my child, says she saw in the desert a few days ago" _Ceres stated.

_"I'm sorry that I cannot give you her name, because when I found her she was only knew a few words, and her name was not one of them...plus almost all records of her name that would have been kept in this house have been burnt beyond recognition...and I've never felt that is was necessary to give her a name." _

Adam turned to the girl sitting next to him. He took the coin out of his morpher and held it out toward the girl.

"You...don't happen to have a coin like this one do you?" He asked rather quickly.

For a few seconds the girl eyed the coin in Adam's hand in the fire-light. Her eyes were wide with surprise as she reached into the smaller bag at her hip and withdrew a coin that looked similar.

Adam could just make out the shape that was etched onto the coin in the girl's hand. While the picture that was on the coin in his hand was of frog, the picture that was of a rabbit. A little ironic, considering what he had been told about this girl before they had actually met.

"_She told me that when this person that she met you...again. That she would have to return with you. That the coin that she had was a part of the 'Great Power' and was needed to help stop an evil from taking over the world."_Ceres stated.

The girl nodded, as if she could hear the conversation between Ceres and Adam, and was verifying that she had told Ceres all the information that the rabbit had just told Adam.

".._Well, unfortunately it's a bit too late for you both to be travelling. So, perhaps you would be best just making yourself comfortable and spending the night here at the camp and leaving in the morning." _

Adam had the feeling that besides it being late, the real reason that Ceres wanted them to leave in the morning was because she wanted to spend more time with her adopted daughter, before having to tell her goodbye.

"_So, Adam. Tell me a little bit more about yourself..."_

* * *

"How's it coming Billy? Any luck with the M.P. yet?" Trini asked as she looked up from one of the Miniature Portable Viewing Globes (which she and Billy had begun to refer to them by the initials.) she was designing.

"Not really. I've managed to get this one to replay that recording of Adam's dream, but the other functions won't be up and running until I can get Energy Pattern Scan data from everyone." Billy stated as he examined a computer chip

Trini dipped the paintbrush she was using to paint one of the M.P. into the little can of Metallic Pink paint and continued to paint before responding. "So, what do you need the Energy Scan Data for?"

"Well, In order to get the capability of seeing what each the other rangers are seeing during any other missions, then the MPVGs are going to need the Energy Pattern Scan data to give the chip that links them all together something to scan for, so that we can choose who's eyes were seeing through." Billy explained.

He looked back down at the MPVG that he was working on, he and Trini were silent for several minutes.

"By the way, thanks for staying and helping me work, even though you could have been at the movie theater with Kat, Tommy, and Aisha." He said putting the device to the side.

Trini smiled and continued to paint. She didn't mind helping Billy out in his lab; it kind of reminded her of the old days. The others would be off doing something else, while she and Billy would be at Billy's lab working on Ranger-related things. Plus, it gave her a little more time to get caught up with an old friend.

Although, Billy was starting to feel a little bad that he had asked Trini to help him. He knew that she had expressed her interest in going and seeing the movie that the other girls in the group had been wanting to see ever since they had heard about it; some tragic romance. Probably much like Romeo and Juliet.

Billy had forgotten about Trini making a mention about wanting to go and see that movie until after she had already agreed to help him out on getting the other MPVGs assembled, and Kat had made a mention about going to the movie to Tommy.

Even though Trini kept saying that it was alright, and that she didn't mind staying around Billy and helping him out, Billy kind of felt that he was taking up most of her time that she could be doing something else that she actually would like to do.

Billy had always admired Trini, she was pretty, smart, kind-hearted, not to mention she was one of the only people that could understand him when he started to explain complicated processes. Before Trini had left, he had planned on asking her out on a date, but before he could actually work up the nerve to ask her, that's when she had left out on the Peace-conference.

His eyes were fixed on her; Trini could see his gaze out of the corner of her eye. Even though he tried to appear to be focused on the device in front of him, she could see the grayish blue irises were focused on her.

"Hey, Billy?" Trini asked after several minutes of silence between the two of them.

"Hey, Trini?" Billy asked, at the same time that Trini had spoken.

Both of them spent a couple of seconds insisting that the other go first to tell what they were going to say before they said what they were going to say.

Eventually Billy took the opportunity to speak first. "I heard that they were having a late showing of that movie that Aisha and the others went to go and see. I remembered that you said you would like to go and see it, so I was wondering if you'd like to take a break from working with the MPVGs and maybe go and catch the movie. I'll buy the popcorn?" He asked uncertainly. His face was starting to flush a deep shade of pink.

He had never been good at talking to girls that he liked, especially when it involved asking them if they wanted to do something that they might take the wrong way as being like a date.

Trini smiled and nodded, "I'd love that."

"I was gonna ask if you wanted to go out for a burger, so, after the movie do you want to go out and grab a burger?" She asked as she pushed her hair over her shoulder and grabbed her purse from the nearby counter.

Billy smiled as he agreed that that would be a good idea, as he and Trini left the lab.

* * *

"Ahh. Two Rangers going out for a night at the movies, how absolutely romantic. Hm. Reminds me of how Vile and I used to act when we were together, only more sickening, because this is all too sweet and happy." Minerva stated as she looked into her magic mirror where she saw the Blue and Orange Rangers standing in line outside of a movie theater.

She turned from the scene and sighed and began to walk away. As disgusting as it was to see two people who were suppose to represent pure goodness together, it made her feel a deep envy for them. She wanted that in her life! It wasn't easy to find love when you were busy ruling over universes, there just weren't many royal emperors who were available anymore.

As she turned back toward the mirror, she examined her clothing. This outfit would definitely stick out in a crowd and she would alert the rangers of her presence too easily. She needed an outfit and an appearance that would make her look more like one of the common Earthlings if she was going to go down and observe those rangers.

Black smoke began to surround her as her snake-like outfit began to change. When the smoke had cleared she stood there wearing a sleeveless green button up dress-shirt and a pair of sliming black flare-cut jeans and a pair of sliver high-heels. Dangling from her neck was a tiny sliver locket with a snake-design on it.

Her dark hair cascaded down her shoulders and back in shining waves, but pinned back with two emerald pins. Minerva examined the outfit in the mirror, yes this would work the rangers would not recognize her with this appearance.

As she began to apply make-up and perfume the doors opened.

"Mother dearest, where are you going?" Rita asked as she entered the room noticing her mother's earth-like attire.

"To the movies Rita-darling. Things are starting to get far too boring around here; there just isn't anything for me to do so I figure that I should find some means of entertaining myself. I shall be back later. Honey." Minerva stated as she finished apply a third layer of lipstick, before giving her daughter a brief smile and then vanishing.

* * *

"I can't believe that we didn't even manage to get into the theater the first showing!" Kat stated with a sigh as she checked her watch.

She and Tommy had been planning on coming to see this movie for weeks now. Even though it took some persuading, to get Tommy to agree to come there. Kat wasn't about to see this movie alone, and it wasn't until after she had gotten Tommy to agree that he had revealed that Aisha had been wanting to see this movie as well, and that he was only going under the condition that Aisha came along too, as to not make it seem like an actual date.

"We should have invited Rocky. That way we could have evened things out...so that Aisha's would have someone to be with rather than coming to see this movie by herself..." Kat whispered to Tommy as she saw Aisha looking at one of the movie-posters outside of the theater.

Tommy smirked as he casted a look behind him briefly. "I doubt Rocky would have really enjoyed being here, even if it were with friends. After all, he's still pretty bummed out."

"Hey guys!" Trini called out to them as she and Billy joined them in line. "So how was the movie?"

Aisha shrugged. "We don't know, the movie theater was already crowded when we got here that we couldn't get into the first showing."

Tommy looked as if he had a sigh of relief on his face as he noticed Billy accompanying Trini. At least he knew he wouldn't be the only guy among all his friends who was going to see this movie.

As they filed into the theater and found a couple of decent seats, The girls began chatting excitedly about the movie, hoping that it would live up to the expectations that they had, and would be as wonderful as it had seemed in the previews.

Little did they know that several rows back, they were being watched by a pair of hazel eyes, belonging to the disguised Minerva.

* * *

As the theater's lights began to dim, causing the whole theater to be plunged into darkness, except for the light coming from the film-projector and the screen as the movie began; Minerva kept her eyes on the rangers.

"Excuse me ma'am." A voice stated from beside Minerva.

Minerva looked up, her eyes trying not to seem annoyed with the fact that she had been disrupted in her attempts to watch the movie and spy on the Rangers.

Standing above her was a handsome dark-skinned man wearing black, carrying a bucket of popcorn. His hair was arranged in short, tiny beaded braids around his head.

"Yes?" Minerva asked, in a flirtatious voice. Obviously enchanted with this human.

The man motioned to the empty seats beside her, "Is there anyone sitting here?" he asked.

Minerva shook her head, allowing the man beside her to sit down beside her and watch the movie.

_This human, is a very interesting subject. Perhaps you might have a chance with him, Minerva, _she thought as she casted her gaze over to the side of this man's face, admiring his profile. _After all, once my daughter Rita takes over this planet, I know I won't have a chance at all. Best to take my shot before this man can begin to despise me._

Of course, that thought was interrupted as another woman entered the movie theater and spotted the man Minerva was sitting beside.

Minerva watched as the man sitting beside her waved to the woman who had just entered and motioned for her to sit down, calling her by her name.

_Maybe they're just friends. _Minerva though, threatened by this new girl who had shown up. She had forgotten completely about watching the movie and the rangers that were a couple of rows ahead of her, when this woman had walked in.

It was always typical that the person that she liked, even though she didn't know his name, would already be taken by someone else. Couldn't she ever just go to a planet, meet one of the inhabitants and not have to crush some sort of competition?

Throughout the whole movie, Minerva kept her eyes on the couple beside her. Her jealously growing the more that she saw the man beside her try to flirt with the woman who sat beside him.

Through out the movie she attempted to make conversation, flirting with the man beside her. Trying to kept his attention away from the girl next to her and get him to notice her.

One of the most romantic scenes of the movie was beginning to play, about an hour into the movie, Minerva's eyes darted around the room to most of the couples that sat around her.

She saw Kat making eyes at Tommy, who kept his eyes on the screen, but was turning a bright shade of Pink. She saw Trini and Billy both cast brief looks at one another blush deeply and return to looking at the screen to avoid each other's gaze.

To add to that all around her, other humans were looking at one another with expressions of love.

As Minerva's eyes turned back to the man that she was sitting beside, what she saw made her jealous grow to the busting point. The guy had his arm around the woman beside him, and her lips were pressed to the side of his dark, handsome face.

Minerva growled angrily under her breath. Her eyes flashed to a deep red.

_Fine then, if I can't have you then neither can she! You bastard!_ Minerva thought angrily.

* * *

Suddenly the movie that was playing on the screen cut off, leaving just a white screen to cast light around the theater. The audience was starting to get really confused, expressing their curiosity about what had just happened.

A panic began to ring out through the theater as several Putty and Tengu materialized in front of the screen.

The audience began to clamber out of the theater, trying to get away from these creatures that had just appeared.

In a few seconds Minerva noticed that the girl that the man she had been sitting next to during the movie was still in the movie theater, she was looking desperately around for the guy that she had come there on a date with, hoping to catch a glimpse of him before she left the room.

_Not so fast! _Minerva thought as she stretched out her hand. The theater doors slammed shut in front of the girl, sealing shut with magical energy.

Minerva approached the girl as she tried to pry the doors open, unsuccessfully. Her brow was furrowed and her eyes were narrowed into slits.

She shot a stream of magic energy at the woman, causing her to collapse to her feet unconscious

"Hey! Who are you and what do you think you're doing?" Tommy called out pointing at Minerva, as he stood up from the seat he was sitting in.

Minerva smirked, "Who am I? I thought that your precious Zordon would have told you that much, Ranger." She stated as she turned toward where the Rangers stood. Her human-outfit changing back to the snake-like armor, and a blade appearing in her hand.

"You!" Kat stated in shock as Minerva turned and faced the rangers.

"I was going to leave you alone Rangers. I really was. I had already preoccupied myself with attempting to steal the love of an Earthling, but can't the game ever be fair for Minerva? No! Of course not. The man that I find here tonight was already with someone...as it always is the case. Well, Tonight I get my vengeance for all the times that I have been shunned by another!" Minerva growled evilly.

"Putties, Tengu, ATTACK!" She shouted, pointing at the rangers with her sword, as the swarm of putties and Tengu began to descend on the rangers.

"Ninja Ranger Power!" Tommy called out as they all made the motions summoning their Ninja Powers.

"The Falcon!"

"The Crane!"

" The Bear!"

"The Wolf!"

"The Tiger!"

Each of them called out their respective Animal spirits as they finished their transformation into the Ninja outfits.

Soon the Rangers were running about the theater taking down Putties and Tengu.

Minerva stood at the edge of the chaos with her arms crossed, watching in amusement as the scene unfolded.

As the battle continued, they were once again finding themselves outnumbered by the combined effort of the Tengu and Putty.

"Aisha. There's too many of them. You've gotta get out of here and go find Rocky. We're gonna need his help." Tommy called from where he was as he kicked a few of the Putties out of his way.

Aisha nodded and in a flash of yellow she had teleported out of the theater.

Not too long after she had left, the Rangers were all backed against the screen at the front of the theater.

Minerva laughed evilly as she approached the Rangers gracefully, sticking her arm out.

The solid screen behind the rangers suddenly fell away, like smoke, causing the rangers to lose their balance and fall backward into it. Trapping them inside.

* * *

Rocky was just idly flipping though the channels as he sat on the couch. Even though there was an Action movie marathon on one of the channels tonight, it just didn't catch his interest.

His parents had gone out of town for the night, and wouldn't be back until morning. Even though they had offered for Rocky to come along with them, he had declined, wanting some time to be by himself.

He walked into the kitchen to heat up some left-overs for dinner that night, still brooding angrily like he had the last few days over Adam's disappearance.

"Rocky!!"

The sound of the voice caught his attention and nearly made him drop the plate he had been hold.

Quickly he turned, noticing Aisha standing there in the kitchen wearing her Ninja outfit.

"Aisha? What are you doing here?" He asked quickly putting the plate of food on the counter.

"There's trouble at the theater. Minerva showed up. We need your help! Come on!" Aisha stated urgently.

Rocky looked over his shoulder, well at least it was something to do, rather than staying at home and watching television tonight.

* * *

As the other Rangers regained their consciousness, they found that they could see into the movie theater, even though behind them was an endless white abyss.

Tommy tried to rush at the where Minerva stood in the theater, only to be repelled by a solid barrier.

"Oooh. Why are you trying to leave, the movie has just started! The stars can't just walk out before the end of the movie!" Minerva crackled evilly as paced back and forth in front of the Rangers.

"Let us out of here!" Trini shouted as she pounded her fist against the barrier.

Minerva crossed her arms. "...Oh, I highly believe that you should stick around another hour and twenty minutes. After all, I've heard that the end of this movie is a real _killer_." She stated evilly.

"Not if I can help it!" A voice shouted from the doorway.

All the Ranger's eyes and Minerva's eyes turned toward this person. From the light that reflected behind him they could tell that he was in Ranger attire. As the new Ranger approached them, they noticed that his suit was a silver color.

"Listen up you snake, I've noticed you staring at me this whole entire time, and I've got one thing to say to you. I just don't think it's gonna work out. You're an ugly hag, full of evil intentions. I don't think anyone can love a beast as hideous as you. And just for your information no one messes with a Power Ranger and gets away with it. You'd better be prepared to face the wrath of the Ninja Ranger protected by the animal spirit of the Owl! Hyah!" The Silver ranger stated as he introduced himself with a pose.

Minerva smiled evilly as she looked down at the Silver Ranger. "Sorry, Darling. I'm not interested in fighting Rangers. But...how about you show your powers off to someone else. Maybe he can entertain you until the film's time length is up?" She stated as she vanished, reappearing at the back of the theater out of sight.

A monster, made up of cameras and film, appeared where Minerva had left.

The monster charged at the Ranger, but was met by a hit from the nunchuku that the Silver ranger carried.

Furious now, it swung at the Silver Ranger, knocking him up against the barrier. The Silver Ranger repelled off of the barrier with a front flip.

However the attack that he was about to launch was intercepted by the film-rolls of the monster, entangling him, and bringing him down to the ground, as he struggled to get free.

"Red Ranger Power!"

"Yellow Ranger Power!"

The two rangers fell out of nowhere with this call, the Red Ranger slicing at the monster's bindings on the Silver ranger with his sword, while the Yellow Ranger stabbed the monster in the back.

"'You okay?" Aisha asked as she helped the Silver Ranger to his feet.

The Silver Ranger nodded as he got to his feet. "I'm fine, but the other Rangers are in trouble. There's got to be some way to break that barrier." He stated looking over at Aisha.

Aisha looked down at her blaster, and then to the barrier. If they charged up their blasters...and shot at the screen, then perhaps they could break the barrier.

Of course, if the plan failed, then she could end up killing her friends...

But it was a risk they were going to have to take. "I've got an idea. If we charge up our blasters, and shot at the field then maybe the combined force will break open the screen, and release the other rangers.

Rocky nodded, as he dodged out of the way of the monster. "But first we're gonna have to get this guy off our backs long enough for our blasters to charge up." he stated.

The Silver Ranger landed an attack on the monster. "Not a problem. I'll keep this creep busy, while you guys get your friends out of there."

Aisha and Rocky nodded as they headed to where the barrier was, charging up their blasters along the way.

The Silver Ranger started to taunt the monster by dancing around it, mixing in attacks with his weapons and from his arms and feet every once in awhile.

The film monster was starting to get confused, and angered.

At this the Silver Ranger laughed as he did a back flip, to duck the monster's flailing arms. He landed the back flip by springing into a break-dance spin, before springing back to his feet and landing a rapid succession of kicks and hits on the monster.

"What's wrong? Don't like the way I boogie?" He asked teasingly as he kicked the monster into one of the chairs.

* * *

Aisha and Rocky aimed their blasters at the barrier.

"Alright guys steps back, and hope of the best. Blasters at full power." Rocky stated as he aimed his blaster.

"On my count...1, 2, 3...GO!" Aisha stated as the two of them fired their blasters.

In a bright flash of light, the barrier shattered, and the four rangers who had been trapped in the barrier came flying out, landing in a heap on the ground in front of the movie screen.

"You guys alright?" Aisha asked as she helped them all get to their feet again.

"We're fine. But looks like he could use a little help." Kat stated looking toward the Silver Ranger.

"Alright guys. It's morphing time!" Tommy shouted pulling out his morpher.

"White Ranger Power!"

"Blue Ranger Power!"

"Pink Ranger Power!"

"Orange Ranger Power!"

In a bright flash of colorful light, the four rangers morphed into their Ranger outfits, and rushed at the monster.

With a combined force of attacks, the monster was taken down.

* * *

"...I wonder what all that was about from Minerva." Tommy stated as he looked at the others rangers.

Billy shrugged, as he looked around. He didn't really know what Minerva was up to. She had said that she was going to leave them alone, and then kept mentioning love. Obviously something about the movie, or the audience had made Minerva so jealous that she went over the top.

"uuggh." They heard the girl who Minerva had attacked earlier voice say as it echoed through the silent theater.

The others noticed the Silver Ranger was helping her to her feet as she regained consciousness.

"You alright there miss?" He asked as she opened her eyes looking up at her rescuer.

"I-I'm fine! Wow. I can't believe that I got rescued by a Power-Ranger!" She stated in shock, as the Silver Ranger picked her up and carried her out of the theater, laying her outside in the lobby on one of the benches.

"No problem miss. You were in trouble. Lucky for you I happened to be nearby." He stated as he turned to walk away, the other rangers following him out of the theater.

When they had all gotten to an alleyway that was deserted, the Silver Ranger stopped and turned toward them.

Kat stepped forward and politely bowed to the Silver Ranger, expressing her thanks for him coming to their rescue.

"Hey, that snake-lady ruined my date. I've been trying to get with that girl back there, for years, and that snake-lady just blew my last shot." he stated.

"Well, it was really great to meet you...um." Aisha stated as she shook the Silver Rangers hand.

"Zachary Taylor. But you can call me Zack." He stated in a flirty voice bringing the Yellow Ranger's hand to the mouth of his helmet, as if he were kissing her hand.

The others de-morphed at this name. They recognized his name but weren't sure if he recognized them.

Zack de-morphed and smiled back at his friends. "I'm surprised you guys didn't recognize me sooner. I mean who else has moves like mine eh?"

The others laughed. It was kind of surprising to see Zack again; none of them had been expecting to see him, since they had not seen him in so long. Of course then again they should have guessed that he would return to Angel Grove on a break, and pick up where he left off.

Suddenly a growl rang out through the group.

"Man, all that fighting has left me starving! What do you say that we go and grab a burger?" Tommy stated looking around at the others with a smile.

Zack nodded. "First. I'd better go and face Angela's wrath. I'm pretty sure she's pissed about how I just left her back there at the movie theater...and I thought having that snake lady staring at me throughout that whole movie was bad....facing Angela is going to be worse." He stated with a laugh as he peeked around the corner, seeing Angela coming from the movie theater.

* * *

While Angela and Zack got into an argument, which ended in Angela storming off angrily, swearing that he had blown his last chance with her, vowing never to speak to him again. The two were being watched through a Minerva's magic mirror by Minerva herself.

_Looks like you got what was coming to you Silver Ranger. You lost that woman's love, and mine. _Minerva thought with a grin as she turned from the mirror, the image fading back into reflective glass.

_An ugly hag am I? A Hideous Beast? Not worthy of love? Well, Mr. Taylor. I've got news for you! You haven't even begun to see the worst side of me yet. We'll just see how hideous you think I am, when you've met my darker side. It will be the last thing you ever see, for I will kill you myself Silver Ranger! _Minerva thought as she opened up her green fan and paced the room.

An evil smile began to spread across her ruby red lips as her eyes flashed. It was all just a matter of time before Earth would fall to her daughter. When that time came, perhaps she could talk Rita into letting her take down the Silver Ranger on her own.

_My sword will be waiting for our ultimate battle Silver Ranger. We'll see how much you like it when I rip your heart out and crush it in front of your face, like you have done with mine._

* * *


	5. An Old Friend in Gold

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to Power rangers

**

* * *

**

Chapter Five: An Old Friend in Gold.

She was too afraid to look behind her as she followed close behind Adam. There was a thick cloud of dust approaching them; Ceres was dashing ahead of them.

_Over Here! _She heard Ceres call out as they came to a part of the desert where a patch of grass had managed to grow a decent height before dying like everything else in this desert.

As she and Adam went to where Ceres had told them to go, kneeling down in the grass staying perfectly motionless so that they wouldn't be spotted by the monsters that were chasing them.

Ceres had not joined them; instead, she had leapt out in front of the monsters. The girl watched as Ceres was torn to shreds before her eyes, hearing the rabbit's screams of pain.

Suddenly she awoke in terror entangled in the old charred blanket that she usually slept under. As she kicked the blanket off she began to look around the room in the pale light of the first rays of the morning.

It had all been a dream. Ceres was still there, curled up in the open lower drawer of a dresser. The girl watched the rabbit's chest rise and fall in sleep. She was glad that she had been dreaming. She didn't want to think that Ceres was dead. The idea really upset her.

Ceres was practically the only family she had ever known, and so she worried greatly about her. She knew that Ceres knew how to hunt for her own food. But she didn't want to think that Ceres could possibly get attacked by wolves out on a hunt one day.

She just didn't want something bad happening like that, going off out beyond the desert not knowing if Ceres was alright, or if she was still alive. It almost made her not want to go.

As she got to her feet she began to think. Maybe, Ceres could come with her! That way she wouldn't have to say goodbye to her! It would be a comfort to know that there would be at least one being that she knew and trusted around.

That was, she thought as her eyes fell upon Adam's sleeping form in the corner of the room while she began to pack to leave, if Adam didn't mind her bringing Ceres along. After all, she knew that Adam had come into the desert, looking for her...and was supposed to be taking her back with him.

Of course, how could she ask him if it was alright? She could barely speak in a language that was comprehensive to him. Sure she picked up a couple of words here and there, quickly, like the word "snake" but she couldn't exactly string a sentence together from what she had picked up from anything that Adam had said since she had met him.

Maybe she could get Ceres to talk to him about it. Right now she seemed to be the only link of communication between them.

As she continued to pack for the trip, she glanced over at Adam, with a smirk. She was still surprised at how quickly he had fallen asleep the night before, even after he had been asleep the whole day.

She knew that sooner or later, she would have to tell Ceres to tell that she was sorry about the incident when they had met, before he came to the camp.

He was in bad health when she had found him and it was still a few miles back to the camp. She didn't want to risk him passing out and possibly dying from heat-stroke, dehydration, or exhaustion on the way back to camp. At least she knew that if he was unconscious that she wouldn't have to worry about his health as much as she would have had to have done if he were awake.

Although, she had realized, it probably would have been easier for her if she had left him conscious, at least that way he could have walked himself back to the camp, instead of dragging him along for the few miles back to the camp.

* * *

Jason smiled at the people who passed by him in the park as he went for a jog. Music blared through his head-phones as he ran. It just didn't feel like home until he was taking a jog around the park in the early morning.

With all the peace-conference stuff he had been doing in the last few years he hadn't gotten much of a chance to actually make jogging a routine thing in the mornings, so he had promised himself that once he went back home for break, he would take up jogging and working out almost as habitually as he had done before going to the peace-conference.

He had been back in Angel Grove for the last few days, and hadn't really run into any of the Rangers. He figured that he probably wouldn't be running into them much; things were probably pretty hectic for them right now.

Of course things seemed pretty quiet around Angel Grove today. Jason, noticed as he stopped to take a drink of water from the bottle he had attached to his belt. Of course, it was to be expected, and enjoyed.

Jason sighed as he continued to run. He wondered how the others were doing. He hadn't talked to them in a while. He wondered if he should give then a call or stop by and see them every once in awhile.

It would be pretty good to see what Tommy was up to, see how he was holding up leading the team.

Jason had to admit, when Tommy had joined the team, he was a little jealous, even if he didn't let it show. He had been the Red Ranger, and the others had always looked to him as the leader. To suddenly have been shoved to the side was a bit of a sting.

Even though when Tommy had joined the team as the Green Ranger, Jason was still technically the leader, even though everyone was starting to look to Tommy as the leader, even though Tommy's power was starting to weaken.

For awhile Jason had regained the leader position, while Tommy had been out after his Ranger powers had officially left him. Although, Jason didn't feel like he could take the leader position with the same honor and respect that he had before Tommy had entered the group, since he felt so guilty that Tommy had lost his powers in the first place because of the choices that he had made.

When Tommy had returned, as the White-Ranger, Jason was glad to see his best friend, but was a little jealous to hear that Tommy, as the White-Ranger would be the new leader. Just when Jason was ready to move past the whole incident and take responsibility as the leader again.

Although, he respected Tommy as a leader, and as much as a relief as it was for him not to have the pressures of being the leader weighing down on him, he kind of envied Tommy.

It took awhile, long after Jason had already left with Trini and Zack, to actually appreciate the fact that Tommy had taken over as the leader.

For all he knew though, Tommy was probably holding a grudge against him for the whole incident that had occurred which had caused him to lose his green-ranger powers. He just wasn't telling him, and tried to pretend that he was okay with what Jason had done.

It would be good for sometime sooner or later, for the two of them to get together and discuss the whole incident.

After all there was something that he had to tell the other Rangers, something that concerned him.

Even though it was a dream.

In his dream, he had been in the desert, and had seen a cloud of dust on the horizon. He stood there watching the cloud of dust; it was still a ways off on the horizon, so he wasn't too concerned about it.

He sensed that something or someone was probably out here with him, and was in danger.

His curiosity only grew as the dust cloud on the horizon grew. In a matter of minutes, he found himself driving fast toward the scene, as he drove he could see a lot of monsters in the way.

There was a flash of golden light as he drove, beside him there was a flash of white light; Tommy must have been there too. He hadn't actually looked over in the last few minutes of the dream before then to know for sure.

In a matter of minutes, they had arrived, Tommy had leapt from the Jeep, so Jason had assumed, because there was a flash of white light darting about the battle-field, battling the monsters that were around.

He had seen Tommy get knocked down and was getting mauled by the monsters.

Before he had ever been able to see if Tommy was alright, if that had been Tommy that he had seen, he would wake up.

The dream had been rather peculiar, so he knew that he should probably talk to the other Rangers about it, he had a feeling that that his dream, might be rather important in an upcoming, if not already going on mission that the Rangers were facing.

Even if he wasn't a Ranger, he knew that if he felt like it was important that he should tell the other Rangers. That way, it would keep them from running head-first into danger, without any plan of action.

Even if the dream wasn't important, or significant to them it would be better than keeping it a secret, and letting it eat away at your consciousness. If he told somebody, at least he would have it off his chest, and it wouldn't bother him as much. At least someone else would know, and he'd have someone to talk to about it.

As he continued running, he spotted Tommy in the distance, looking around at the base of some nearby trees, and then casting looks up into the branches. It was odd to see the White Ranger doing this.

"Hey, Tommy!" He called out holding up an arm and waving to catch his old friend's attention as he approached.

Tommy looked up from his searching as his old friend approached him. He smiled as he clasped hands, and patted his friend on the shoulder briefly; showing that he was glad to see his old friend was back in town.

"So, what're you up to?" Jason asked curiously as Tommy briefly went back to searching around the base of the tree.

Tommy held up the device in his hand. "I'm supposed to be taking my time getting back to Billy's lab, taking as many detours and doing as many crazy things as I can. Basically I'm testing the recording capabilities of this device that Billy had invented." He said with a smile.

Jason smiled; it was just like Billy to have been inventing some new device, which if it didn't screw up and end up causing a mess, would prove useful to the Rangers. He waved slightly, obviously the device was on and Tommy's vision was being monitored by Billy and probably a few of the others. He might as well say hi to them too.

"You want to head back with me?" Tommy asked after a minute.

Jason nodded as the two of them headed back, Tommy explaining everything that had been going on while Jason had been gone.

* * *

Beelzalea drew the cloak higher over her head as she wandered out on the moon. She was far from the castle. She estimated her position to be about a mile onto the Sea of Serenity.

She could feel the energy that was radiating from this area. _I am close, to your future husband's core, my mistress Rita. It shall only be a little while longer until that beast you have mistakenly married is awakened from his blissful dream of holding your hand in marriage._

From her robes she withdrew an orb, burying it in the soil. As the orb came in contact with the soil it began to glow a violent lavender color. The glow was still visible once Beelzalea had buried it. Quickly, to hide the glow that was emitting from the orb, she placed a molded clay figure onto the soil.

_Now, you shall wait here, and grow, my dear little clay puppet, as you absorb the remnants of My Mistress Rita's new husband's spirit that have fallen to the moon after his unfortunate defeat. When the time comes, after this warrior's soul had been given life again by this clay statue, I shall call upon you, and then it shall only be a matter of days before the warrior who's spirit you will house will be betrothed to my Mistress, and she shall finally have a King worthy to rule the Universe at her side. _

* * *

Rocky lay with his shoeless feet hanging over the edge of the floral blue pattern, loveseat in the Cranston family's living room. Mr. and Mrs. Cranston were both at work, which allowed the rangers to move any discussions about Ranger business into a more comfortable area, aside from Billy's lab. So far the testing of the MPVGs was boring Rocky. He was beginning to fall off to sleep.

He could hear the muffled conversation between Trini, Aisha and Billy in the kitchen as they prepared a snack for the group to eat, as they all waited for Tommy to return.

It was Rocky, Kat, and Zack's job to monitor the MPVG, and see if it was still recording, and to map out Tommy's location, even though, Rocky knew it wasn't going to take all three of them to do this. So he was sure they wouldn't mind if he took a small nap.

It was too early in the morning, and he hadn't gotten sleep in the last few night anyhow, so he was feeling rather drained of energy, he knew that the others knew that, and would probably understand if he drifted off to sleep, even for a little while.

In a matter of seconds the others knew that had fallen asleep, when they heard his loud snores, almost close to the sound as if someone had put rocks in a dryer, where the holes that the air was supposed to come in from, were replaced by the rough edges of a cheese-grater, only muffled by the pillow-back of the sofa, which Rocky had buried his face in while drifting off to sleep.

The initial sound had caused Kat to jump, and begin to look around suprised, until her eyes followed her ears to the source of the noise, falling upon the sleeping teenager in red. She let out a sigh and continued to watch the image of the park, from Tommy's view-point that was playing on the MPVG.

"Kat. Don't you think you should applogize to him?" Zack asked suddenly, in a whisper, as not to wake Rocky up.

Looking over at the teenager wearing silver, Kat raised an eyebrow as if to pretend like she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Look, I don't want to interfere with you and Rocky's argument. But Aisha told me everything. She says that one of the reasons why Rocky is so angry about the whole situation with Adam and is so ready to believe that his best friend is dead is because of the fight that you two are having. He still believes that you are rubbing it in his face that Adam put himself in danger, alone, when he should have had support on the mission that Adam had to do." Zack explained, as he drew out a chart on the map of Angel-Grove charting Tommy's location.

Kat looked over and sighed slightly. She wasn't going to apologize to him. She doubted that Rocky was acting the way that he was, partially because of the argument that she and him had the day that Adam had left. Aisha probably made a misjudgment.

No, there had to be another reason that didn't involve that argument that he was acting like he was because of.

"I doubt that's true. It's been days since the whole argument had happened. He hasn't even acted like there is any argument going on between us." She stated turning her attention to the MPVG, screen. Showing Zack that she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Zack sighed as they both sat in silence. Even though, Kat didn't want to admit it, he could tell that she was beating herself up on the inside for the way that she had been acting toward Rocky in the last few days.

If this whole thing had happened to him and one of his closest friends had left without so much as a goodbye, he would be rather upset and angry like Rocky was, and things wouldn't be any easier, if another one of his friends had gotten into an argument and wouldn't apologize he would be feeling worse.

Of course if it had been him, in Kat's position, then he would probably be beating himself up inside, like she was, even if she didn't admit it. Knowing that he was part of the reason for someone else's depression, wouldn't make him feel any better, and he would be looking to apologize as quickly as possible.

He had a feeling that Kat and Rocky would probably be apologizing to one another, around the time that Adam came back. That was if Adam came back at all.

* * *

Rocky found himself standing in at his old elementary school in Stone Canyon. Everything looked just like he remembered it. He was out on the playground, judging from the color of the trees and the way that everyone was bundled up, it had to have been late November or early December.

He could see himself, he had to have been at least six or seven, (he guessed that he was in first grade at least, judging from his appearance, since he had yet to identify the memory that he was viewing.) He was running about the playground with the group of friends that he had always hung out with back through all of elementary school.

His friend, Dustin, was being chased around by Aisha and Shauna. He had Aisha's hat and she wasn't too happy about it. Apparently Dustin thought it was rather funny, to run around despite Aisha's angry glares, laughing his butt off. Dustin may have seemed like a jerk, but he only really teased Aisha, Rocky knew, because he had a crush on her.

It wouldn't last, Rocky laughed as he watched his old friend being chased around, by the sixth grade, Dustin would be dating Shauna. (Aisha's friend, who was chasing Dustin around the playground in this memory) Rocky kind of wondered if that had worked out. He hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to Shauna the last time that he had seen her when she was in Angel Grove for the Gymnastics competition.

He watched the scene for awhile, him and his friends laughing at Dustin as he was chased around the playground by Aisha and Shauna. The entire time, he stood beside his younger self, (even though he knew that the kid could not see him, since he wasn't actually there.)

From the corner of his eye he could see something going on, which caught his curiosity's attention.

As he found himself approaching the scene, that was going on at the far end of the playground near the log-cabin that hardly anyone had played at since it was unstable and the teachers had told many of them that they would get in trouble if they were caught playing on it, it was also Rocky remembered, near where there was a jungle-gym set that at lot of the snobby-rude-popular kids had claimed as their own.

There was a tree that grew right above these two pieces of playground equipment. Which now that Rocky thought about it, was completely unsafe, and he wondered why it hadn't been cut down before then. One of the large branches was just close enough to the top of the Jungle-Gym that anyone who was at the top of the Jungle Gym could just easily climb up on to the branch.

It was a common game among some of the kids at the school to climb up on this branch and crawl across the tree and jump down onto the log-cabin, which another branch overlooked.

Today, branches and the playground equipment were a little slick, since it had just rained. There was a bunch of wet leaves covering the top of the log-cabin and since the leaves had been collecting they also littered the ground around the log cabin.

Rocky, stood near his younger self watching the scene from a distance. While he knew that at the time, the kid who had been him years ago, didn't know what was going on, he remembered the whole thing clearly.

He could see the little kid wearing a black coat and scarf sitting on the branch above the log-cabin, that little did Rocky's younger self know would become his best friend after this incident today.

The young Adam was watching the kids out of the patch of grass that was used as a make-shift soccer field, while holding a soccer-ball in his hands, tossing it up in the air and catching it absently. Rocky could guess that either Adam had just been rejected when he had asked the kids playing soccer if he could join, or he was wishing that he could be over there playing soccer with them, since it looked like they were having so much fun. Either that or a mixture of the two. Rocky felt kind of bad for him, whatever the case.

In a matter of seconds, Rocky saw the rather large form of one of the kids, and the skinny form of another kid approach the Jungle Gym. (Rocky identified these two as being, Jaime and Cody...Stone Canyon's answer to Bulk and Skull, only they had more bite about them where as Bulk and Skull were mostly all talk.)

As usual they were followed around by their group of friends, who were just as mean as them, and did almost whatever they told them to do.

Jaime and Cody climbed up into the tree from the top of the Jungle-Gym. Rocky laughed in amusement as Jaime, the larger of the two boys, tried to climb up onto the tree branch.

Soon the two of them had made their way over to where the young Adam sat, looking out at the playground.

"_Hey! What do you think you're doing here?" _Jaime asked in a harsh voice as he set foot on the branch where Adam sat.

Rocky watched as the six year old wearing black got to his feet and made an attempt to go back over to the branch that was above the Jungle-gym, although, Rocky knew that way wasn't going to work out so well. Not with the angry Jaime standing in his way.

"_I said what do you think you're doing here? This is our area_." Jaime continued as he took a step forward making Adam take a step backward, trying to keep his footing on the branch.

"_Yeah, Losers like you aren't allowed here!_" Cody called from over the branch that he was standing on.

The young Adam looked over his shoulder as Jaime took a step closer. There wasn't much room left on this branch for the two of them, and he was pretty sure that the branch was on the verge of breaking from the tree and sending them both crashing to the ground, with his and Jaime's combined weight.

Rocky could see Jaime motioning with his hands, and Cody and the others laughing hysterically, although, he couldn't hear what was being said, since his hearing in this dream was based upon what his younger self had heard at the time, and at this point, the little kid that he stood beside was watching, curiously wondering if the branch was going to break, or either of them were going to fall.

He could only assume that Jaime was making some completely rude and uncreative crack about how Adam was short for his age.

Things were starting to get ugly, as Rocky watched the young Adam attempt to make his way past Jaime, without having to resort to go to the playground equipment. Jaime however was more set on getting Adam in trouble, and hurt, so he wasn't allowing him to pass by to get back to the Jungle Gym and not in the way of Jaime and Cody.

Rocky watched as Jaime shoved the young Adam away from him causing him to lose his balance on the branch, and fall on top of the log-cabin below, causing the few boards that made up part of the room, to come crashing down to the ground with the force that Adam had hit them with as he had fallen.

As Jaime, Cody, and their group made their way over to Adam, most likely to continue to torment him, despite the fact that he could be hurt, or possibly even dead, Rocky (followed not too far behind his younger self and his group of friends rushed over to the scene.)

"_Leave him alone Jaime!" _Rocky heard his younger self shout as he stopped right in front of Jaime, who looked at the kid who had just spoken to him with smirk. He had found a new kid to pick on, and it looks like he brought friends, Rocky could just tell that's what Jaime was thinking.

Jaime cracked his knuckles and approached Rocky and his group of friends, as all of his and Cody's thugs surrounded them.

At that point, Rocky heard Jaime make a joke, which was meant to offend him. Of course, Rocky, even at that age, took Jaime's comment light-heartedly. Nothing really in the way of Jaime's jokes really offended him that much, it was only when Jaime started throwing punches, at the fact that Rocky was standing up to him.

Lucky for Rocky, he had been taking martial arts for a year at this point, so he knew a couple of basic moves to help defend himself.

In a matter of seconds, he and the others had Jaime's group running with a couple of busted lips, nothing worse than what they had done to Rocky and the others.

Rocky watched as his younger self cleaned blood from the side of his face, where Jaime's punch had broken the skin as he and approached the place where Adam had fallen.

Aisha wasn't too far behind him, as they tried to move the beams of wood that had fallen, in order to get to Adam.

When they had finally gotten to them, Rocky, (the one who was viewing this whole memory through a dream) shook his head. The little kid that would later become his friend was just coming back around to consciousness as they managed to get to him.

"_You okay, kid_?" Aisha asked kindly as she knelt down next to him.

The young Adam only nodded in reply as he tried to sit up. He winced in pain as he put weight on his left arm to stand up, falling back as he realized that trying to get to his feet would be a hopeless effort.

Rocky held out his hand to the kid, helping him to his feet, keeping the kid balanced, as he once more winced as a pain shot through him while he was trying to put weight on his feet to stand on his own.

It would be later, that Rocky would learn that Adam had received a broken arm and leg from the whole incident.

"_I think there probably isn't anyone in this world worse than those two. They think they're so tough by picking on others. Those two don't really bother me much, since I've stood up to them every time they've tried to bully me. You've gotta learn to stand up to them and just ignore them as much as you can_." the young Rocky said, as they helped dust the wet leaves off of Adam's clothing.

"_You didn't have to do that. He would have left me alone eventually_." Adam stated quietly as he made another attempt to put weight on his leg to stand on his own feet.

"_You mean this isn't the first time this has happened?" _Rocky asked in shock.

Adam shook his head.

Rocky (the Rocky from the present time,) crossed his arms as be mouthed the same words that his younger self was saying.

"_Well, you don't have to worry about getting hurt by them much anymore. We can't really stop them from verbal insults, but as long as you stick with us, you won't have to worry about their fists, which takes off half of their toughness. What do you say?" _

Rocky watched as the young Adam looked at them bewildered. Rocky could just tell that he was finding it hard to believe that they were offering. Not getting beat up by Jaime and Cody? Friends? The idea almost seemed too good to be true.

"_C'mon! You don't believe us_?" Dustin asked as he put his hand on Adam's shoulder. Giving the warm smile that he always gave his friends when he was trying to get them to believe something that he was telling them, or to make them feel better.

Aisha put her hands on her hips. "_We'll that's just because you don't know us. Maybe if you stick with us for a little while and get to know us better, you'll come to trust us... and if it doesn't work out then you can always leave_. "She stated with a smile.

Adam nodded hesitantly, as a smile broke across his face,

The young Rocky smiled and held out his hand to Adam. "_Well, if you're going to be sticking around with us for a little while, then at least you should know our names_." He said.

Rocky watched as each of the younger versions of his old friends introduced themselves to Adam, who introduced himself shyly to them. (Thankfully, Rocky thought, Adam eventually overcame being painfully shy and became moderately shy, as he had hung out with them)

In a matter of seconds the whole scene was broken up by a couple of the teachers rushing over to them.

Rocky, Aisha, and the others had received a trip to the Principal's office. (Jaime and Cody had told the teachers about the fight, although bending the truth to make themselves seem more innocent than they actually were) Adam had been taken to the emergency room, once the school nurse had confirmed that Adam had a couple of broken bones.

* * *

"The Ape snores as if a demon possesses him!" Beelzalea stated as she turned away from Earth shaking her head.

Rita looked thoughtful. "..A demon. Hm. that...that just might work!!" She stated as she leapt up from the throne she sat on.

"...Finster! Beelzalea!" She called out getting the two Magi's attentions as they lined up side by side in front of Rita.

"Yes, my Queen?" Finster asked bowing respectfully to Rita.

"My Mistress Rita, what brilliant plan of destruction have you come up with, that you request the assistance of two Magi, such as Finster and myself, to carry out?" Beelzalea asked as she gave a low bow to Rita.

Rita pushed past them both and looked down at Earth, before turning and marching back and forth between the two of them, as she tried to figure out how to put her plans into words.

"The Red Ranger, is sleeping, Finster, I want you to create a monster, to invade his dreams. That while he is a sleep will take control over him. Making him a prisoner in his own mind, torturing him with anything that could break him down. As he sleeps, the dream-demon will attack the others Rangers!" Rita began as she looked toward Finster, who was making notes of her orders.

"The Rangers definitely won't be expecting that." he said joyously as he bowed to Rita, making a sketch of the design of this monster he was going to create.

Beelzalea looked over, with a grin. "Plus, once the Ape is under the control of this Incubus, then he won't hold back against the other Rangers. Upon them he shall mercilessly unleash the wild beast spirit, calling it from the darkest shadows in the jungle that is his heart. leaving, his human-side ensnared in the thickest vines of these shadows, left to either strangle to death, should be fight back, or drown in his own despair." She added clasping her hands together.

Rita turned to the Magi that had assisted her mother for as long as she could remember. "Beelzalea, it will be your job, to take the monster to that Red Ranger's mind. From there you shall place a curse upon the Red Ranger, to keep him asleep, allowing the monster to stay in control, until the Rangers are defeated."

To this Beelzalea gave another low bow, her razor sharp fangs showing, her eyes narrowed.

"It shall be my pleasure, My Mistress Rita." She said as she followed Finster to the laboratory to assist him in making the monster.

* * *

Jason looked over at Rocky as he and Tommy entered the Cranston's living room. He was fast asleep, and was snoring like a pack of wild bears. The others had decided to move their research over the MPVGs' test recording sessions into the kitchen, so that Rocky could rest, and so they wouldn't have to talk over his snoring.

It was obvious the kid was tired out, he had a lot on his mind, and stress and worry were starting to take his toll on him, which Jason knew was something that would keep Rocky from fighting at his best, against this new enemy that he had been told they were up against.

As he turned away and headed into the kitchen with the others, he felt a bit uneasy. Although, he knew he should let Rocky rest, he just didn't feel right letting him stay in the room all by himself.

Sure, he was in the safety of a fellow Ranger's home, and there was a handful of Rangers who were going to be nearby in case anything were to happen. Not to mention that Rocky was a tough Ranger as it was, that he could work his way out of a problem, or at least cause enough of a disturbance that the others would be able to hear him, and come to his aid. But, it didn't help Jason any knowing that.

Something just wasn't right about it.

As Jason disappeared into the kitchen with the others, Beelzalea showed up. Standing next to her was a demonic creature, with a body that was fairly human in appearance, except that it wavered like smoke in the air; its eyes were deep red slits.

Beelzalea waved her hand briefly, casting a spell as to mute out their presence from the other Rangers.

"Now, Sleep-walker, this is the human whose dreams you are to enter. Do what you must to keep him from fighting against you to wake up. Keep him imprisoned in his mind, while you destroy the Power Rangers. Understand?" She asked as she looked up at the creature.

Sleep-walker responded with a nod in return, telling her that he understood perfectly what he was supposed to do.

Beelzalea knelt down to Rocky, her eyes becoming a bright red to match the color of the Ranger Power which resided in his soul. Sleep-walker placed his hand on Rocky's forehead, and began to fade away from the living room as he entered the teenager's mind.

As Sleep-walker entered Rocky's mind, Beelzalea put her hand on the side of Rocky's face. She could feel his skin becoming ice-cold, as he began twitching violently as the demon entered his mind. It was almost as if death were settling in. The feel of it on her finger tips made Beelzalea smile briefly.

She began to cast her spell, to keep Rocky from waking up, muttering the chant that accompanied the curse under her breath, as a wave of crimson energy left her hand, and washed over Rocky's body.

As she finished, she remained there with her hand against Rocky's cold face. He had fallen back into a gentle sleep at this point.

* * *

Rocky was just coming from his memory of when he had first become friends with Adam. He was standing in the dark alone, not sure where his dreams were going to land him next.

As he stood there, he began to feel that something was wrong. If he was dreaming, he shouldn't have been floating in this abyss after the end of a memory. He should have at least made some transition over into another memory by now, but he hadn't.

"I think I'm done with my nap....I should be waking up now." He said aloud to himself. His voice echoing off into the emptiness.

"Unfortunately, Red Ranger, you're not exactly in control of deciding when you can wake and when you shouldn't at this moment."

Rocky turned as he heard the voice, at first he saw nothing in the darkness, until a form started to materialize before him.

The Sleep-walker creature appeared before him, with a smirk on its face.

"Who are you?"

Sleep-walker chuckled at that question, as he approached Rocky, who was trying to keep himself from showing his fear visibly.

"My creators have named me Sleep-walker, and that is what you shall call me." he said with a deep laugh, turning away from Rocky.

Vine-like shadows began to grow from the darkness, wrapping themselves around the Red Ranger's body tightly, lifting him off his feet, suspending him in the air. As he struggled against the vines, he could feel a pain starting to grow in his chest.

"But...Your friends will come to better know me as Rocky, the Red Ranger." Sleep-walker laughed. "In fact, they're about to meet me as it is."

"On a side note Rocky, struggle all you want against the shadows, you won't make it out alive. Those shadows are directly linked to the despair in your heart, and the more you struggle, the stronger your despair will wrap around your heart...until eventually it will be strong enough to crush it. When it does, the shadow vines should be strong enough to crush you."

* * *

"I think the test went well. We've got all the functions up and running. The recording plays back and we've been able to make a fairly detailed analysis of what Tommy saw and on the audio. I think as soon as we make a copy of the same frame-works of these, then we should be able to get the others functional in no time." Billy concluded as he looked at the notes that had had taken.

Rocky entered the room, just as Billy finished speaking and went to go and put the devices back in his lab.

"`Bout time you woke up sleepy-head! Enjoy your nap?" Aisha teased with a smile.

Turning toward, her, Rocky's eyes narrowed, they still looked heavy with sleep. As did much of his appearance. His hair was disheveled, and dark circles had begun to appear under his eyes.

"Don't you ever shut up? All you do is talk. You're too damn happy, Aisha." he shot back darkly, as he sat down next to her.

Aisha didn't take the comment as being too inappropriate. Rocky was usually grouchy after he woke up and so she didn't put it past him to unintentionally insult someone, so soon after he woke up.

Jason watched Rocky's behavior from across the table. He still had the feeling that something wasn't right about Rocky. Even though the teenager had just woken up, there was something different about his presence. It was as if he was still the same person that he had been last time that he had seen him, the same lively teenager, but only faint traces of that kid were still there.

Rocky could see the whole scene going on before his eyes. Everyone was there, sitting around the table. Some of them were giving confused glances at him over whether his insult towards Aisha was intentional or not.

He could see Jason was sitting there. Apparently he had run into Tommy in the park and had come back with him. Jason was the most skeptics looking of them all; Rocky could just tell by the former Red-Ranger's eyes that he was sensing more than just Rocky being grouchy in the morning.

"Jason!!" He found himself shouting, as if his voice was actually going to reach his mouth, while Sleep-walker was in control. He struggled to break free, only feeling the pain in his chest growing more as the vines strength grew.

Sleep-walker smirked, as his sight fell on Jason. The Red Ranger was calling out for this guy. Obviously he had the feeling that this Jason-kid was suspecting of something, and was desperately trying to make contact with to tell him that not everything was alright.

"Yes, he would do well to be the first one for me to kill. Move in order of the strength." Sleep-walker mused looking over his shoulder to Rocky's struggling form.

"I shall kill him first, then move on to your leader, Tommy. Or perhaps, I should kill Kat next? You would like that wouldn't you? You and her aren't getting along right now after all. Perhaps, I should torture her, let her die slowly right in front of Tommy, break him down eh? Then, I could kill him easily, before I move onto the others."

Rocky stopped struggling, being in too much pain right then to continue struggling. "No!" He breathed out, trying to regain his breath. Tears starting to form the corners of his eyes.

* * *

The girl had gone out on a hunt again, leaving Ceres and Adam at camp together. It was around mid-day, (she had been gone since early that morning, telling Ceres that she was going to take awhile getting back, she had never had to hunt for anyone but herself, or in preparation for a long tipe, so it was probably going to take her a little while.)

_Adam? _Ceres asked hesitantly, as she hopped over to the teenager who sat inside partially in-tact remains of a bedroom that had once belonged to the house that had stood here years ago.

Looking up from examining some half-destroyed papers that he had found in the remains of a desk, Adam gave a slight nod to the rabbit.

_She wanted me to ask you, if it was alright if I went back with you and her. _

"I don't see why it would be a problem. I mean, you're practically family to her." He said as he looked out the window at the desert.

Adam knew that the life in the desert was a life that girl. (it was starting to get a little frustrating not being able to call her by her name. He'd probably see if Alpha could find her name when they got back, since surely there had to be some sort of records around regarding the name her parents had given her before the whole incident that had left her out in the desert had happened.) was used to, and to go into a life that was unfimilar to her, would be a little scary for her, it wouldn't hurt to have something, or someone nearby that would be going through the same thing that she was going through.

_Yes. I figured that you would say that. I appreciate that you are understanding of her request._

_Even if she refuses to accept the Power of the Ninjetti, and chooses to give the coin over to someone else, and return to the desert...I'm afraid that I will not be able to be with her for terribly too much longer. I will have to leave her some time._

Adam raised an eyebrow at Ceres' statement. "Well, of course not. You're not exactly going to live forever. I mean, you're a rabbit, no offense. I mean it's amazing that you've lived as long as you have taking care of her." He stated offhandedly as he continued to look through the papers on the desk.

"...Not, exactly that." A voice came from behind him causing him to jump and turn around. There wasn't an echo to Ceres' voice anymore, which made Adam begin to wonder if she had become capable of speaking.

He had expected to see Ceres there, but instead saw a Purple-clad Ninja, standing in her place.

"You see, I am the embodiment of the Purple Ninja Ranger's Power. That's why I've been able to talk to you and her both. Because I am not a rabbit, despite the appearance that I take on with her around." Ceres began.

"Among other things, I could not bring myself to tell her that the coin that she possesses is detached from its power at the moment. When the whole incident had occurred, and her family had been attacked, I used a part of my power, and summoned myself from the power-coin, that is while I was still the protector of the powers of the Raptor. Bringing myself into a physical form, in order to help the young child, protect herself against the monsters that had kidnapped her."

"Although, I had to give myself the appearance of another creature. I could only take on a human appearance, as the Raptor, if there had been someone who possessed my powers at the time, unlike now. Since I can take on the appearances of the Ninja, even though, I am separated from my Power-coin."

Adam was finding this a slight bit hard to believe, but in a way things were really starting to make sense which was the first that that had happened in the past few days.

Of course, he was beginning to wonder how many other things Ceres had not told the girl that she had protected, if she hadn't told her about being the embodiment of a Power. He doubted she would be very pleased to find out that Ceres would have to return to the power-coin, leaving her for good.

_Please do not tell her about this. I feel it would be best if I told her myself. When the time comes._

* * *

Zedd looked down at Earth from where, he stood. He had been keeping a watch on the possessed Red Ranger. While he did admire the brilliance of the idea, since it had come from his wife. He didn't not particularly agree with Beelzalea having to give her participation to the whole thing.

He was pretty certain at this point that Beelzalea was devising a way to destroy him, and what was to say that she wouldn't sabotage this mission, and once the Red Ranger has destroyed the other rangers, that she-devil wouldn't teleport him there to kill him?

Ever since Beelzalea had returned she had been sitting in contemplative silence, her eyes remaining a solid red color, signaling to Zedd, she was thinking about the Red Ranger, since her eyes were not a garnet red, that they had turned every time she had looked at him.

"What's this? It appears that the mighty Beelzalea has a weak-spot for the Red Ranger." Zedd taunted as he approached Beelzalea.

Beelzalea glared, her eyes deepening in their color of red, to tell that her gaze and thoughts were back on the man in front of her.

"Gazing upon The Ape's sleeping form; I was brought back to memories of a person I once knew. He met the same fate that the Rangers are soon to meet. I have not thought about this person for awhile. A weakness for the Ape my silence is not." She growled darkly, as she glided past Zedd.

For a brief minute before she had passed him she looked as if she were about to speak to him, adding onto what she had just said, but decided against it.

"Don't you have a monster to send down to keep the Rangers hands tied, to make it easier for Sleep-walker to kill while their backs are turned?" She decided to say, instead of what was really on her mind, as she left the room.

Zedd turned and glared down at Earth, It was true, he did have a monster to send down, that was part of the plan. Although, he wasn't sure what monster he should send down that would keep the Rangers busy enough to allow Sleep-walker to destroy them.

* * *

Hours had passed, and Jason had noticed that Rocky had been following him around, keeping an eye on him, for about the last two hours. It was really starting to get annoying, and not to mention that it was really starting to make Jason suspicious.

He wouldn't have minded it so much, if Rocky had actually talked to him, or changed his attitude since he had woken up. But, he hadn't cheered up, or gotten any nicer as time went along. Plus he hadn't really said anything to him, which was very unusual for Rocky.

Usually, Rocky would be striking up a conversation with anybody, especially someone who he hadn't seen in awhile, like Jason. But Jason took note that for the last two hours the red-clad teenager hadn't really spoken to anyone.

Even if he did speak to someone, he usually didn't have anything nice to say, and his voice carried a seriously rude attitude, that even though Jason had not seen his replacement as the Red Ranger in quiet awhile, he knew that Rocky normally wouldn't have.

Instead though, Rocky just sat in the background, outside of the group watching them all chat and discuss things.

The look on Rocky's face, although, still extremely tired looking, like he had just woken up not but two seconds ago, instead of like two hours ago.

Of course, there wasn't much time for Jason to think about it, as soon as he was about to ask if anyone else was noticing Rocky's strange behavior, he heard the alarms sound on the seven Ranger's communicators.

"Alpha, Zordon, come in." Tommy said as he checked toward the living room to make sure Billy's parents hadn't come back, seeing that the coast was clear.

"Rangers. Zedd has unleashed a terrible Elemental Monster in the park." Zordon began as he explained the situation.

"Rocky, Trini, Zack, and Katherine, you four will go to the park and search out the Elemental Monster. Billy, Aisha, and Tommy, You three will teleport to the Command Center with Jason." Zordon stated as the transmission went off.

Everyone looked at each other with looks of surprise, and worry.

"If Zordon's calling for us to bring Jason to the Command center...then that can only mean one thing." Trini stated as she looked over at the others.

"We'd better get going." Zack stated as he, Kat, Trini, and Rocky lined up side-by-side across from the others.

Tommy took hold of Jason's shoulder, as the group that was heading toward the command center prepared to leave. Since Jason had gave his communicator over to Rocky when he had left, they would have to teleport together.

In a bright flash of multicolored light, the two teams teleported to their locations.

* * *

When Kat's group landed in the park, they were greeted with a strange sight. The sky around the park had turned pitch black, almost as if it were night.

Everything was incased in thick layers of ice, which glinted with an unseen light.

"What's going on here?" Kat asked in awe as she and the others slowly looked around the strange crystal like ice-structures.

"This has to be Elemental's doing." Zack stated as he approached one of the ice structures, clearing a layer of frost from it.

What he saw inside made his and the two female Rangers' stomachs turn. The forms of people were incased in the ice, looking almost as if they were asleep.

Rocky (Sleep-walker), looked at the ice structure closest to him in disgust. He looked at the dim reflections of the others in the ice structures. While he appeared to look like Rocky, in the eyes of the other Rangers, it became painfully obvious that he was not, when it came to reflections.

In the pale reflection of the glass-like ice, stood the image of the creature that was in habiting Rocky's body at the time. Looking at the others, it appeared that they were to focused on finding the Elemental and killing it, to make things go back to normal.

_"As long as they're too distracted by Elemental, they won't notice my reflection..." _Sleep-walker thought glancing over his shoulder, mentally, looking at Rocky, who was attempting to struggle against his bindings once more.

* * *

Rocky had sweat and blood running down his face, soaking his shirt, colllecting his mouth and causing his hair to stick to his forehead. So far, trying to break out of the vines had only caused them to wrap tighter around him and make him look as if he had just gotten the living daylights beat out of him.

_"_You know, Rocky. It's no use to struggle. I mean, that is unless you want to kill yourself, dying from physically being crushed, only seconds after your heart is crushed to bits by despair." Sleep-walker stated turning towards the struggling teen.

He looked at Rocky, as he stopped struggling for a minute, and just glared at him. In the blink of an eye Sleep-walker had vanished from where he was, reappearing next to Rocky. His eyes only inches away from Rocky's face.

"You know. You should struggle. You'll end all your suffering, Rocky. You'll get to see that friend of yours, Adam, is it? Maybe when they find his body out in the desert...you'll find him in the depths of hell, and the two of you can look up from there and watch the funeral."

Sleep-walker began shaking with dark laughter, as he looked at Rocky's beaten-up glaring face. He liked seeing the Red-Ranger at such a disadvantage, causing himself more pain as he struggled against his bindings.

Of course his pleasure at seeing the Red Ranger in pain, attempting to break free, and only becoming more enraged as he realized the attempt was futile and only going to cause his death to come faster, didn't last long.

In a matter of seconds, Sleep-walker was hit in the face with a mixture of blood and spit that had been collecting in Rocky's mouth, as he cleaned it from his face, with his free hand; he glared down at Rocky, who was smirking darkly at him.

"You think that's funny do you?' Sleep-walker asked in a low growl. "Let's see how funny you think this is!"

As soon as the last words left his mouth, lightening shot from the hand that was grasping Rocky's head, sending electricity surging through him, and the vines that entangled him. A cry of pain issued from Rocky's throat as the blinding white-hot pain surged through his brain and body, causing him to writhe in pain, only making the vines wrap tighter around him.

Sleep-walker began laughing manically as he watched Rocky suffer.

* * *

"I think it would be best if we morphed before we run into this monster." Kat stated as she pulled out her morpher.

"It's Morphin' time!" Trini stated with fierce determination.

The others nodded in unison as they reached for their morphers and detaching them from their belts, and making the motions that they usually made when morphing.

"Pink Ranger Power!" Kat called out as the pink light surrounded her. It's light contrasting drastically with the dark sky, reflecting off of the ice structures.

"Orange Ranger Power!" Trini called out a few seconds after Kat's transformation had begun. The Orange light from her morpher, mixing with the pink light.

"Sliver Ranger Power!" Zack called out as a slivery light shot from his morpher, joining with the other three lights.

When all three lights had cleared, the three Rangers turned towards Rocky, surprised that he had not morphed along with them, but rather was just looking at the morpher in his hand, as if he didn't know what it was used for.

"Rocky, c'mon, man. You'd better morph." Zack stated putting his hands on his hips; kind of surprised that Rocky was looking at his morpher as if he had never used it before. Rocky had been a ranger long enough to know exactly what the morphers were for, and usually from what he had heard from Kat, Aisha, and the others was that he was usually among the first to jump into action and morph when they had to.

Nodding, Rocky imitated the motions the other Rangers had just done. Sleep-walker, hoping that Rocky's spirit being present inside his mind, would be recognized by the morphing power, and allow him to fool the other Rangers into believing he was the Red-Ranger.

"Red Ranger Power!" He called out. A spark issued from the morpher, causing him to jump slightly. Although eventually the red light appeared from the power coin as it transformed him into the Red-Ranger.

"Okay, let's go!" Kat stated as she pulled out her weapon and took a deep breath, as she led the way through the frozen park looking for the monster.

It took awhile for them to find the monster. But eventually they found it.

The Elemental Monster was a disgusting Chimera of a monster. Its legs were composed of rock and vines, its head and left arm were ablaze with fire, and its torso and left arm were composed of water that looked like it was being contained in a mold that looked like a human and torso.

At its side stood Minerva, her sword at her side. The tip of the blade was resting in the ice beneath her feet. She had an amused look on her face, as if she were expecting the Rangers.

"It's about time you got here. I was getting bored of waiting for you." She stated as she withdrew the blade from the ground. She motioned with one of her long claw-like nails to the monster at her side.

"Darlings, I want you to meet Elemental. A little creation that my lovely little girl's husband had cooked up with his magic! Isn't it just hideous?" She stated in a false-sugary sweet voice, as she looked at the Rangers.

Zack crossed his arms and looked at the others. They all wore looks of laughter under their helmets. Minerva's sugary-sweet voice, talking to them like they were children, it was amusing. She had one thing right; the monster they were facing was hideous.

"Well, it should, because trust me Rangers it's only the half of your worst nightmare!" Minerva stated pointing her weapon at the Rangers, falling into a battle position.

Elemental rushed at the Rangers, at the same time that Minerva rushed at the Rangers.

Trini ducked Minerva's swinging blade, however, her ducking left one of her fellow Rangers unprotected.

A shower of sparks rained down on the Orange Ranger as Minerva's blade struck the Ranger suit of the Silver Ranger. She could hear him shout in pain as the blade hit him.

"Zack!" She shouted as she got to her feet and landed a punch Right in between Minerva's shoulder-blades.

"I'm fine!" Zack as his anger about being attacked began to grow. He pulled his weapons, swinging them at Minerva, deflecting her blade as it attempted to strike him again.

"Guys, it looks like I've got a score to settle with Minerva. I'll fight her; you guys take care of the Elemental Monster." Zack stated while he engaged in battle with Minerva.

The other Rangers nodded and charged at the monster. As they rushed at it, the monster stuck out its hand, sending a jet-stream of water at the Rangers from its water-based hand. Following it, it stomped it's foot on the ground, sending up waves of electricity, causing explosions to occur, sending the rangers that ran at it up into the air.

Sleep-walker stood on the edge of the battle, watching it. He was surprised that the other Rangers had not noticed that the Red Ranger wasn't fighting by their side like he should have been. It only made things easier for him.

Elemental took note of the Red-Ranger on the sidelines, finding it to be a perfect opportunity to attack the solitary ranger. A blast of ice shot from his water-based hand, causing the ice that covered the ground to start to form up around the Possessed Red-Ranger, much to his own surprise.

"Oh No! Rocky!" Kat shouted as she saw the ice-structure solidify around the red-ranger, trapping him in the ice.

_What is that bastard doing?_ Sleep-walker thought angrily as he watched the scene from behind the ice-prison. _This wasn't part of the plan you jack-ass! You were supposed to wear down the Rangers, and I was supposed to kill them. You weren't supposed to attack me!_

* * *

"Jason, You're probably wondering why I have decided to bring you here." Zordon stated as he looked down at the group of Rangers that had assembled in front of him.

Quickly, Zordon began to explain the situation to Jason, going over everything that he had told the other Rangers days before.

"Jason, you have been chosen through your previous Ranger service to possess the powers of the Gold Ninja Ranger."

As soon as Zordon said "Gold Ninja Ranger" a morpher and coin materialized in the air in front of Jason, as he caught it before it hit the ground.

Jason looked at the coin, inside the morpher with the others. Upon the coin was the engraving of a fierce-bird.

"With the Gold Ninja Ranger Power, Your Guardian animal spirit is the Hawk. Let its ferocity and precision shine through your being in battle, and its loyalty match the loyalty you show to your friends and fellow Rangers."

Bowing, Jason accepted the powers that he had been given. He couldn't wait to morph again, and rejoin the others in battle. Sure he might not have the same color that he should have, but at least he was getting the chance to be a Ranger again.

"Alright, we'd better get to the park and help out the others." Tommy stated as he put his hand on Jason's shoulder. "..And since you're back on the team. I'll let you say it this time..." he added.

Jason nodded and gave a brief smile, as he held out his morpher, in unison with the others. _Just like old times, _he thought.

"It's Morphin' time!" He called out. "Gold Ranger Power!"

"White Ranger Power!"

"Blue Ranger Power!"

"Yellow Ranger Power!"

The lights shot from their morphers, as the group morphed and teleported to the battle.

* * *

When they arrived at the battle, they found that the other rangers were in need of help. Trini and Kat were locked in battle with the ugly chimera-like monster that they had been sent to destroy. Zack was locked in battle with Minerva, while Rocky was locked up in an ice prison.

"Looks like we came in just enough time" Tommy stated as he helped Kat to her feet, as the Elemental monster had just sent her flying back-ward with a Rock that it had summoned out of thin air.

"It's about time you guys got here!" Trini shouted as she rolled out of the way of a stream of fire.

Aisha and Billy jumped into battle beside Zack, seeing that he had a blade at his neck at the time; he was definitely in need of some help.

Minerva glared angrily as the other Rangers entered into the battle. She ceased attacking, and flipped her hair, resting her hand on her hip, and staring scrutinizingly back at the Rangers that had come to the Silver Ranger's aide.

"Humph. I've had my fun with you for now Silver Ranger. I think that Elemental would have more fun with you, than I am.

"Guys, if we get this guy to launch a flame-based attack, we might be able to get him to melt the ice around Rocky, and it might be able to break him free." Tommy stated as he noticed that some of the ice that had been on the ground had melted when the Monster had launched a fire-based attack.

Aisha looked over her shoulder, toward where Rocky was trapped. Well, it was a long shot that it would work, but, it was better to have the ice melt, rather than having it break-apart, and chance killing Rocky.

Of course, getting the monster to use a flame-based attack was difficult. While, it was composed partially of flames, it only used that elemental power sparingly, while it liked to assault them with wind-and lightening based attacks.

Sleep-walker, was watching the scene, angrily. He didn't need help from the Rangers! If they were to break him out of that ice-prison then that would mean he would be in their debt, and his only way to repay them would be to let them live, completely going against the reasons for his creation.

"_Time to heat things up."_ He thought as he began to summon all his strength into the Red-ranger's body, causing the Ranger-suit to glow a violent red, as it began producing heat, quickly reducing the strength of the ice around him, until he could easily burst out of the prison with his own strength.

The others stared in amazement as they saw Rocky, or what they believed to be Rocky, accomplish this feat on his own. Even with his Ranger Power, it didn't seem likely that he should have been able to break free on his own.

Jason noticed something odd about the Red-Ranger as well. While the others were focused on their friend, who was walking toward the monster, weapon drawn and a fierce determination in his stride, Jason noticed the reflection upon the ice.

At first be believed that his eyes were fooling him. The Red Ranger was not in the reflection, rather a demon stood there, mocking the Red-Ranger's motions.

The closer that the Red-Ranger came to the monster, the more the monster hurled attacks in his direction, and the easier he deflected them.

Jason rushed at the monster that "Rocky" was heading towards, he wasn't about to let this Red Ranger defeat the monster. After all, he couldn't be sure that this Red-Ranger wouldn't absorb the monster's power, and then turn it around on them?

In unison, both the Gold and Red Ranger rushed at the monster, with their weapons drawn. (Jason's Power-weapon was a scythe)

Their speed increased, causing them to become blurs of gold and Red, as they sliced through the monster, appearing on the opposite sides of it.

The monster exploded in a brilliant flash of light, leaving Jason and Rocky standing with their backs to one another, several feet away from each other.

The park began to return to normal, as the sky cleared up, and the Rangers de-morphed, noticing that there weren't others around.

"That was great!! Awesome teamwork you guys!!" Tommy stated as he and the others rushed up to Jason and Rocky, cheering about their most recent victory.

As the team returned to Billy's home, Jason kept giving Rocky suspicious glances the entire time.

_That's definitely not Rocky. _He thought as he noticed the Red-Ranger's dark gaze fixed upon him as they walked home, _But if it wasn't Rocky...then who or what was it, and what was he up to? Was he a clone of Rocky that had been created to attack the Rangers? If that was the case, where was Rocky? _

Jason had a bad feeling that he was about to find out the answers to his questions soon, although he hoped he was wrong in his suspicions.

...but his suspicions were usually right.

* * *


	6. A Twist of Green Part I

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to the Power Rangers

**

* * *

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**Chapter Six: A Twist of Green- Part I**

Rocky couldn't believe that they had not yet figured that he was being possessed by Sleep-walker, even though He believed that Jason was beginning to catch on, in the way that he had been giving him skeptical stares ever since they had defeated the Elemental monster yesterday.

Well, at least, Sleep-walker has his back turned to him, while he was trying to control his body, Last night, it had been hell. Once "Rocky" had gone to bed and drifted off into a "sleep" the real Rocky had spent the whole night being tortured by Sleep-walker and his electricity power.

Even though, Sleep-walker had stopped torturing him for now, since it was daylight hours, he was still slowly recovering from the pain. Every muscle in his body was slowly relaxing, his hands were shaking terribly, and he was trying to keep his breath slow and calm, although he was having a hard time doing so when it felt like he was going to throw up.

Not to mention that the vines had gained enough strength during his struggling to be tight enough around him, that his arms and legs were asleep from lack of proper blood-flow to them.

Maybe it was just his fatigue, or the fact that his senses were a little off after the volts of electricity that had gone through his brain since this whole thing started, that was starting to make him not think logically, and a little on the suicidal side, but he was really starting to consider make another attempt at struggling, this time not an attempt to escape but an attempt to bear through the pain and end it all.

"Rocky, you can't just give up." He could almost hear Adam saying in his brain every time the thoughts of suicide came through his mind.

He knew it wasn't really Adam who was speaking to him; it was more or less an echo of Adam's voice from a memory from several years back.

He remembered exactly when Adam had said that to him. The three of them (him, Adam and Aisha) were in martial-arts practice. One of the tournaments were coming up at least a couple of weeks, they had to have been about thirteen, so it wasn't exactly their first competition. Their sensei was making them train harder, making them go through more practices than normal.

Rocky had been having a rather off day, and so their sensei was being stricter than normal, to try to motivate him to do better, however he had let his frustration and nerves get the better of him and had shouted at the teacher when he had pointed out that he had messed up on the kick he had just done again, and was showing him how to correct it.

Adam had followed him outside and was making an attempt to see what was wrong with him, and to better understand why he had gotten angry at their sensei. When asked, Rocky had explained that he was frustrated; he just couldn't do anything right that day. He swore he was going to quit, and sensei could find some who was better than him to replace him.

At that Adam had said what Rocky could hear going through his head.

"I've known you for several years Rocky, and I've never known you to quit, just because the going got a little tough." Adam's voice echoed in his head.

Rocky breathed in deeply, trying to fight the pain he was experiencing.

"I don't know Adam....it wouldn't really be quitting if I struggled enough to get crushed. Some would call it murder, and others would call it putting myself out of my misery." He muttered to himself as he replied to the memory of Adam that was going through his head, telling him not to give up.

_The Frog is right you know, Ape. You're too stubborn to be giving up on your life this easy. _A breezy voice commented, echoing through his head.

"_Who are you?" _Rocky asked the unknown voice.

_You already know who I am. You may not have heard my voice before, but you've seen me. _

_"Are you sure that I've seen you before and not heard your voice?"_

_Yes, but I'm not exactly at liberty to give you the name that I am called. You wouldn't exactly listen to me if you knew who I was, Ape._

_"Okay, so you won't tell me your name. But you don't have to insult me almost every chance you get." _Rocky thought as he took note that the voice had called him an "Ape" again. He had almost forgotten that his animal spirit was an Ape, and the voice that he heard was just calling him by his animal spirit.

_I'm not insulting you_. _Are, you holding up alright? I know that you've been tortured by Sleep-walker, but at least you are still living. That's good, that's the strong spirit the Ninjetti powers of the Ape have given you.....just try not to struggle anymore, okay? You don't really want to get crushed by your own despair do you?_

Rocky, was a little uneasy about the voice that he was hearing. It wasn't a voice that he could recognize, and he didn't feel very comfortable with this person calling him things like "Ape" plus, this person, (a woman from what he could hear from their voice) seemed to know way too much about the whole situation.

But, what other choice did he have? If they knew enough about the situation he was in, then maybe they could help him get out of here, and get rid of Sleep-walker.

Besides, it gave him someone to talk to.

* * *

"Well, that's three power-coins claimed, and all by former Rangers. All that's left is the Green Power coin." Billy stated as he looked at the chart that he had drawn out.

"...Plus, we have to wait for Adam to get back from the desert, with that other power-coin. If he comes back at all."Trini added looking up from the magazine she was reading.

Kat sighed looking out the window. "You know, I wonder what type of person, the new Ranger Adam is supposed to be bringing back is going to be like?" she asked curiously.

Zack smirked as he leaned back in his chair. "I'd say it's gonna be a guy. I mean, let's look at the pattern here. We had Trini, first, then I showed up, then Jason....So, Girl, Guy, Guy, and more than likely. I betcha the Green-Ranger is going to be a Girl...and so the other Ranger after her is going to be a guy."

"Of course, that's only if the person that Adam has to get the Power-coin from decides to join the team. I mean, who's to say that he or she won't just hand over the coin, and then leave? Chances are they haven't got a way to use the power, so they probably won't find it to be much use to them." Tommy replied, looking over from where he was standing.

The other nodded in agreement that it was possible that could happen.

* * *

Adam inhaled deeply as he looked toward the hazy cliffs in the distance from the window. The plans to leave had been delayed by a day, since the girl had not come back until sundown. (Much to Ceres' relief when she had returned.)

"It's probably going to take a few days to get back." He said to himself aloud as he adjusted the black Ninja hood on his head. Undoubtedly Beelzalea would get word on him finding the missing power-coin, especially if she was monitoring him, so he figured he better be prepared to defend the group if there were an attack.

Looking over, he noticed that the girl was still looking through the remains of the room, as if she were looking for something, or at least checking to see if they had packed everything that was salvageable

Adam could tell that she was very nervous about leaving, even if Ceres was coming with them. He figured that her nervousness had probably been part of the reason why it had taken her so long to return the day before. He could hear Ceres carrying on a conversation with her; (even though he couldn't hear her half of the conversation) Ceres kept telling her that they had gotten everything.

Adam wanted to tell her that Ceres probably wasn't going to be around too much longer after this trip was over anyhow and then explain everything that he had learned about Ceres to her, but he knew that he shouldn't.

After all, He had given his word that he wouldn't tell her, until Ceres felt it was necessary. Adam had never been the one to break his promises, if he could absolutely help it, and he wasn't about to start.

"So, you nervous?" He asked walking up beside the girl as she continued to look through the remains of the room.

She looked up at him, and bit her lip while shaking her head, obviously lying. The truth was, she was beyond nervous. She was having a practical panic attack. Her heart was racing almost as fast as her mind was wondering about what to expect. Her stomach was uneasy, and her hands were shaking slightly, she felt light headed.

Even though, Ceres was trying to tell her to calm down, and that it wasn't really anything to be worrying so much about, she couldn't just bring herself to calm down.

"Well, if you do start feeling nervous, just remember you're not being forced to leave the desert. All that you're really being asked to do is accompany me back to the Command Center to return the power-coin." Adam stated, trying to sound reassuring, and to make her feel better.

The girl looked up at him with a smile as she nodded, to show that she understood what he was saying.

Although, Adam told her that it was really her choice if she decided to stick around with him and the other "Rangers", she couldn't help but feel that deep in her heart once the trip to this "Command Center" was complete, she wouldn't be returning to this location any time soon.

_Child, you've gone through this room five times over, looking for things that don't exist, or have already been packed up. We can't keep prolonging this trip. You and I both know that. _Ceres stated to her as she hopped up beside her.

The girl nodded; inhaling deeply as she got to her feet and adjusted the bags she had put the supplies in on her shoulders, while picking up Ceres with her free arm.

_"Alright, I think we're ready to go."_ Ceres stated to Adam, as soon as he had adjusted the bag of supplies that he would be carrying on his back.

As the group left the house, Adam noticed the girl turn and give the room one last look with a reminiscent sigh before turning around and joining him.

* * *

Aisha smiled as she restocked the pet supplies on the shelves behind the counter of the Animal shelter. She was just about to get off of work. Today had been a great day. So far she had seen a family reunited with their lost dog, and had seen several animals being given away to good families.

She just loved this job, it gave her such a good feeling knowing that she was trying to make the lives of some animals better, by helping give them the care they needed, and by helping them find good homes, and sometimes help the animal find the family that it had lost.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if you be able to answer some questions about animals." A girl who had just entered the animal shelter asked after several seconds.

Aisha didn't even turn around as she began to help the girl, as long as the girl was asking questions she could keep restocking the shelves.

"What kind of animal do you need information about? A dog? Cat? Bird? Fish?"

"Well, actually, I'm looking for a Bear, it's for my friend." the girl stated.

Aisha raised her eyebrow as she heard that, but still didn't turn around to look at the girl at the counter, as she continued to restock the shelves.

"We don't usually take in bears, and they're a little dangerous as pets. Are you sure that you'd want to give your friend a bear?"

"Yeah! I'm absolutely positive she would love it. I was thinking possibly one with yellow fur. Do you think that would be good?" The girl replied.

Aisha shook her head, "I'm sorry, ma'am, but like I said, bears are pretty dangerous pets, and I'm not sure that you'd really be wanting to give a bear as a pet, especially for your friend. Plus, on top of that, if you were to find a bear, I doubt you'd be able to find one with yellow fur. Unless you were looking for a teddy bear."

Once she had finished restocking the shelves she turned toward the girl that was still standing at the counter, when she had heard the girl beginning to giggle.

When she turned around her jaw nearly dropped. Kimberly stood there with a smile on her face, wearing a loose pink sweatshirt over a pink tank-top and a pair of white jeans. She was giggling over the fact that Aisha hadn't even recognized her voice.

"Kimberly! Oh my gosh! I can't believe it's you! What're you doing here?! I mean, I thought that you were training for the Pan-Globals!" Aisha found herself exclaiming in shock as she looked at her old friend.

"First, here's a gift!"

Kimberly smiled as she withdrew a yellow furred Teddy-bear from behind her back, and held it out to Aisha.

"Thanks Kimberly! It's so cute! I love it!"

"I guess that you guys didn't get my letter, the Pan-Globals were a couple of months back. Coach Schmidt decided to take a few months vacation starting this week, and he decided that since he wasn't going to be able to continue training me, he decided that I should come back here to continue training." Kimberly explained happily.

Aisha smirked as Kimberly gave the explanation of why she was back in Angel Grove, and explained how weird it since Jason, Zack and Trini had all come back from Switzerland on break not but a couple of days ago as well.

"That is so wild! It looks like the whole team is in Angel Grove for the time being! Awesome! We should totally have a party!" Kimberly stated with an excited squeal as she thought of the possibilities of how they could all have fun during their vacation.

Aisha gave a half smile as she began to close up the shelter for the night. Yeah, a party would be pretty great, especially since all of the old Rangers were back in town at one time, a first since they had all left. However, she knew that the party wouldn't actually be celebrating them all being there, since Adam still was out in the desert, and there was no telling when, or if at all, he was coming back.

Plus, with the how Rocky had been acting as of late, a party just wouldn't be any fun. Aisha had always known Rocky to be the life of any party, but for the last few days (since before yesterday) he had been a little too bummed out about Adam leaving without a goodbye that he just wasn't himself.

After the nap that he had taken the day before, really hadn't been the same person at all. Aisha wasn't sure, Rocky just seemed a little more mean than normal, but she didn't really know. (If he was being more mean than normal, if they did throw a party, she wouldn't put it past him to decide to set the place they would be holding the party on fire or something.)

"Yeah, we'll totally have to see about a party. I know with all the stuff that's been going on lately, a party would definitely make us all feel a little better." Aisha stated as they both walked out of the shelter.

She noticed Kimberly's confused, yet interested expression, and began to tell her about all that had been going on in the last few days.

* * *

Jason was watching Rocky from the punching bag. So far, Rocky, still looked the same as he had the last few days, disheveled and like he had just woken up not but a few seconds ago, and no one had really noticed anything different about him.

"Rocky" was spotting Tommy on the bench-press at the moment. Jason was uneasy with the idea; he knew that the Rocky that was helping Tommy wasn't the same one that Tommy thought was spotting him. The Rocky that was there instead was a monster, Jason concluded, and there was no telling what he was aiming to do.

Whatever it was, Jason knew it couldn't be good and probably was aimed at killing all of them.

He had to admit, Rita and Zedd and that whole evil bunch had been pretty clever by replacing a Rocky with a monster that looked almost exactly like him. The others so far as it seemed weren't expecting a thing, except for the attitude problem.

If "Rocky" wasn't discovered soon, and managed to attack them, or worse kill one of them, the others would be taking it as a betrayal, rather than an attack.

Sleep-walker looked up from over Tommy, that Golden-boy Jason had been watching him ever since they had met up here at this place these humans called a "Youth-Center" a few hours ago.

He was beginning to suspect that Jason was probably one of the only Rangers that had begun to figure out the truth. This wasn't a good thing for him.

If Jason had to opportunity to tell the others his suspicions, even having evidence to back up his theory, the Rangers would undoubtedly believe him. After all, the others had a lot of faith in Jason's credibility, and trusted him not to make up some story.

If Jason got to do that, then undoubtedly Sleep-walker's cover would be blown, and this plan wouldn't be going as had originally been planned.

As Sleep-walker looked around the Youth Center, he was wondering if there was some way for him to make Jason lose his credibility towards the other Rangers a little bit. As he looked down at Tommy, an idea hit him.

Yes, he had an idea for the others to not be able to believe Jason much, and if he was lucky he might be able to take out the White-Ranger while he was at it.

"Jason!" He called out to the Gold Ranger, getting the teenager's attention as he approached the two of them.

"I've got to step out for a minute, you mind taking over here?"

Jason nodded, and took Rocky's place spotting Tommy. At least, Jason thought, "Rocky" wouldn't be around, so the chances of him attempting to kill one of them would be lessened.

Sleep-walker walked out of the main part of the Youth Center, stopping and hiding behind part of the wall beside the entrance. He watched Jason spotting Tommy on the bench-press for several minutes, with a dark smirk on his face.

_Alright now. Say goodbye, White-Ranger._ Sleep-walker thought as his eyes flashed a deep red, causing an unseen wave of red-energy to briefly surround the weights on the bench-press bar.

He watched as the bar became too heavy for both Tommy and Jason to lift on their own, pinning the white-ranger down as it lay across his neck. He could hear Tommy gasping for breath, trying to alert Jason that he needed some help before the bar crushed his neck, or he died of lack of oxygen to his lungs.

The incident had caused quite a disturbance, all the Rangers that had been in the room had rushed over there immediately, trying to help Tommy out while asking what was going on. Sleep-walker noticed that even some of the normal people like the fat-man that ran the place, (Ernie Sleepwalker had heard Jason call him), had coming running over there, and were in a panic about what had happened.

It appeared that Tommy was quiet popular, if that many people would be worrying about him, Sleep-walker noticed as he watched the crowd gather as Jason, and the other Rangers and a couple of people tried to get the bar off of Tommy's neck. _That's just perfect. Not only can I wreck Jason's credibility with his fellow Rangers, but I can wreck his credibility with his friends outside of the group._

* * *

Rocky (the real one) could see the whole thing from where he was, he couldn't believe that Sleep-walker would be that brutal, obviously Sleep-walker had not honor about how to kill the Rangers if he would really sink as low to make one death look like a brutal accident while trying to damage the reputation of another Ranger.

_Sleep-walker, like most monsters was designed without an idea of honor. It's main goal was to kill by any means necessary, added to that, the guardian spirit you have is a rather brutal one, when it's power are called upon. Sleep-walker was designed to channel that energy from your power, Ape._ The voice said sternly in Rocky's head.

_"Just call me Rocky okay? Anyhow, isn't that a little dangerous?" _Rocky asked the voice in his head.

_Well, for you and the other Rangers it could be dangerous. If Sleep-walker can fully tap into your guardian spirit, and harness its strength then your friends don't stand a chance in combat against the combined forces._

_One of the reasons that the shadows are linked to you, is for the purpose of making you struggle, the longer you struggle, the more exhausted you become, the closer to death you become. The more your heart drowns in despair. If the vines were to crush you, you would die, but your animal spirit would still be around since there is something sharing the powers of the Red Ranger with you right now. If you were to die, the guardian spirit of the Ape would go directly to Sleep-walker._

Rocky frowned; he still didn't like the fact that this unseen voice knew more about Sleep-walker and his mission than he knew. Not only that, but he was starting to lose hope that he was going to be able to get out of there.

If he struggled, he would only kill himself, giving Sleep-walker what he wanted, besides he was being restrained pretty well by the vines that he couldn't move much, to even begin to try to make any sort of escape.

Great, Rocky thought disdainfully, right now he was the only one who had any way of stopping Sleep-walker but he was being held prisoner, with no way of escape. Tommy was going to die, and Jason was going to get blamed for his death, all because he couldn't free and stop Sleep-walker.

As Rocky watched the paramedics enter the Juice-bar, passing by his body without so much as a word or a glance, he saw something that nearly made his heart leap.

* * *

The extra weight that Sleep-walker had enchanted on the bench-press bar had been lifted mysteriously, and the paramedics were laying an unconscious Tommy onto a stretcher, and wheeling him out of the Juice-bar to the emergency room.

Jason and the other Rangers followed him not to far behind, as a couple of them passed by "Rocky" in the hallway, (Who was pretending to be shocked and confused about the whole situation) Kat explained what had happened, while casting a look to Jason, it was obvious that she wasn't sure if she should believe his story that it was an accident and he had no idea how that much weight had been added to the bar.

Jason and the others were on their way to the ambulance with Tommy, wanting to make sure that he was alright, deciding to head to the hospital behind him. Kat explained the situation to "Rocky" when she had passed him in the hallway (Sleep-walker was pretending to be surprised and shocked about the whole incident.) although she kept casting looks of disappointment to Jason, not sure if she should believe the him when he said he wasn't responsible for what happened and that he didn't know how this had all happened.

As the others left, Jason lingered behind, stopping "Rocky" from following the others by taking hold of his shoulder and pulling him back toward him, turning the brown-haired teenager to face him.

"Look, I don't know how you did it, but I know you were the one responsible for what happened to Tommy." He whispered darkly to the teenager, who was staring back at him darkly.

Sleep-walker smirked as he looked up at Jason, "Well, you can't prove that. From what I saw you were the one who let him drop the bar, when it got too heavy for him, and didn't really try to help him out." he replied slyly, following his comment up with a psychotic grin, his eyes flashing red briefly

"If I were you, Ranger, I would be glad that you're not facing murder charges right now. If my spell hadn't been lifted somehow, then Tommy would be dead." he added in a low whisper.

Jason remained silent as he glared down at "Rocky"; he knew for certain that this teenager he was looking at was no longer Rocky. While yesterday, Jason had been able to sense the Rocky that he knew in the presence of this person somewhere, today it seemed as if that Rocky had died. In his place was a monster, with Rocky's blood on his hands.

"You listen to me, and you'd better listen good, you might be fooling the others with your disguise, but I'm not buying it for a minute. If you pull a stunt like that and harm any of my friends like that again, you'd better be prepared to face me." Jason whispered darkly.

Sleep-walker's eyes flashed once more, as he stared up at Jason's eyes. "Come on, Ranger, you and I both know that when Tommy was struggling, you felt rather pleased to see him like that. Made you feel strong, for once in your life, you were stronger than Tommy. It made you feel good."

Jason took hold of "Rocky's" shirt collar; his eyes were staring daggers down into the monster that had assumed his friend's appearance. This guy was pissing him off more than he ever had been in his life. It was starting to bring out a side of himself that he had never seen before, a more hostile side that was very unlike him.

"Try to harm any of my friends again and I swear, Ranger code of honor or not, I will kill you with my bare hands, regardless if you look like Rocky or not."

Sleep-walker smirked as he pushed Jason away from him, slamming him into the lockers. He remained silent as looked at Jason for a few minutes, with an evil smirk on his face, before heading out of the Youth-Center to catch up with the others.

"You'll provide a worthy challenge; it'll make it all the more satisfying to kill you." Sleep-walker whispered under his breath.

Jason slowly followed Sleep-walker out of the building. His anger not dissolving for a minute. "Rocky, I know you've got to be alive, if not in that monster then somewhere, bro. Just hang in there, when we find we'll find a way to get you back." Jason whispered in the direction of Sleep-walker.

This caused Sleep-walker to stop for a brief minute, smirking evilly ahead of him. Little did Jason know if they did find Rocky, helping him would be next to impossible, and not to mention would be the certain death of their friend.

* * *

"What's going on?! Sleep-walker had the chance to kill that annoying White-Ranger and he didn't!" Rita shouted as she pulled her eyes away from the telescope.

Beelzalea looked at the earth peacefully, "...probably a minor defect in his creation, My Mistress. You can't expect a spirit-monster to be perfect. Especially when it is in the body of human. His spell must not have lasted as long as it should have."

Zedd looked skeptically at the Magi as she left the room. He highly doubted that Sleep-walker's spell had just lifted itself on its own; he could bet every evil thread in his soul that she had something to do with it.

* * *

Aisha and Kimberly rushed into the hospital waiting room nearly half an hour after Tommy had gone into the emergency room. Billy had called Aisha to tell her what had happened, although when she had told him that she was on her way there, he hadn't been expecting that she would be bringing along a friend, especially not Kimberly.

While the group was happy to see her, and she was happy to see them, they all knew that they wished this reunion would be occurring under better circumstances.

"What exactly happened?" Kimberly asked in a whisper as she sat down with Kat on one of the small couches in the waiting room as they waited for the doctors to return to give them any news on Tommy.

"Tommy was working on the bench-press machine. Rocky was spotting him; he was doing just fine, until Rocky said he had to step out for a moment and asked Jason if he could take over for a minute. I don't know, he was doing alright for a little while, until the bar got too heavy, and dropped right on top of him." Kat explained, while casting an uncertain look to Jason who was sitting in a chair at the far end with his fist clenched glaring in Rocky's direction and then in the direction of where Tommy had been taken.

Kimberly casted a look over to Aisha. While it seemed like an accident, she couldn't have been sure. She really refused to believe that Jason had purposefully put his friend in danger like that. Tommy and him had been best friends, neither one of them would just purposefully harm the other one.

Aisha was starting to get a little suspicious of the whole thing herself. The minute that she had heard that Rocky had been there not only a few minutes before the whole accident had happened, she was beginning to suspect that Rocky had something to do with it.

It appeared that Jason knew something about it, and Aisha was determined to find out what. She didn't care if Kat or the others believed that Jason was responsible, she trusted Jason. Plus, she wasn't about to put anything past Rocky as of recently.

Before she got a chance to though, a doctor walked into the room. "Mr. and Mrs. Oliver?" He asked adjusting his glasses and looking down at the clip-board as Tommy's parents got to their feet to speak with the doctor.

"Yes? Is Tommy alright?" Mrs. Oliver asked curiously as she wrung her hands together. She had been a nervous wreck for the last hour, despite all the efforts that they all had done to try to get her to calm down.

The doctor paused as he began to review the information that had been written down on the clip-board.

"We've given him an oxygen mask to help him breathe, until we can run further tests to see what type of damage has been done, but from the looks of things it appears that Tommy will be just fine." The doctor said after a few minutes of looking at Mr. and Mrs. Oliver's worried expressions.

"I have to admit, he's a very lucky man. Despite a few bruises on his neck, which should heal over time, he's perfectly alright. Although, it is a pretty amazing that he managed to live, considering that he had that much weight pressing on top of his neck. In all other cases, the mere weight would have crushed his neck, and killed him...almost instantly." The doctor stated with a smile.

Mrs. Oliver let a sigh of relief as she buried her face in her husband's chest. She had begun to sob tears of relief over the fact that her son wasn't terribly injured, and was still alive.

"Is it alright if we go and see him?" Mr. Oliver asked the doctor after a few seconds of silence among the group in the waiting room.

The doctor nodded, as he looked over his shoulder. "Of course. Right this way." He said as he led Tommy's parents to the room where he was being kept. The others had decided that they would wait in the waiting room until Tommy's parents had a chance to visit with their son to see how he was doing.

Kimberly crossed her arms and looked around the room uneasily. While she was relieved that Tommy was alright, she couldn't believe that someone or something would try to kill him like that, and Jason of all people.

Sure, she believed that there were some hard feelings between Jason and Tommy about the whole incident where Tommy had become the leader of the Power Rangers instead of Jason, but she had never expected Jason to act on them (that was if they had really existed) and especially not like this.

She sure had picked some time to come back to Angel Grove on vacation. She hadn't been back with her friends for very long, and from what she had heard, Jason hadn't been back in Angel Grove for a few days, and the whole Ranger team was already going into chaos.

A lot had certainly changed in the time she had been gone.

_

* * *

_

The White Ranger still lives, only with a few minor bruises. Unacceptable. I don't understand why is it that my power wasn't able to hold like it should have.

Sleep-walker thought as he sat there in that chair in the waiting room, looking at the other Rangers as they sat about.

_Could it be, because of Rocky that my power wasn't as strong as it should have been? Could it be possible that when I entered his mind, my power was somehow diminished slightly, as to accommodate the limits of power that this human body could handle?_

Rocky smirked as Sleep-walker's voice echoed around in the darkness, as he thought. Even Sleep-walker didn't know why Tommy hadn't been killed, and was trying to come up with some possible way to explain it.

But perhaps, Rocky thought with a little spark of hope starting to ignite in his heart, Maybe Sleep-walker's theory was true. Maybe the reason that Sleep-walker hadn't been able to kill Tommy, was because of him. Maybe as long as he was still alive with the guardian spirit of the Ape, protecting and giving him power instead of giving Power to Sleep-walker, the monster wouldn't be able to be at full power.

* * *

It had been a few hours, but eventually Tommy's parents had left him alone so that he could visit his friends.

The Rangers had decided to go in pairs, seeing how the room that Tommy had been placed in was a little too small for all of them to fit in comfortably.

As Jason and Aisha entered the room, they saw Tommy lying on the bed. The doctors had concluded that there was nothing wrong with Tommy's lungs and the bar hadn't caused any serious damage to him in the way of keeping him from breathing properly, so they had allowed him to come off of the oxygen-mask, even though he would be required to stay the night at the hospital.

It was a little bit of a pathetic sight, Jason had to admit. It really hurt him to see his friend like this, especially when he believed that almost all of the other Rangers believed it had been him who had done this to their leader, out of a jealously he had let go of years ago.

"Hey, Jase, Aisha." Tommy stated as he sat up in bed and looked at the two who had just entered the room.

Jason, although knowing it wasn't actually his fault for the accident, sat down at Tommy's bedside; put his head in his hands for a brief minute as he tried to figure out how to formulate an apology to his friend.

"Bro, Look. I'm sorry about what happened. You know I wouldn't ever try to hurt you like that. I-I just don't know what happened; I thought you were doing okay...and then when the bar got too heavy...I dunno. I just couldn't lift it. It's not like I was trying to hurt you on purpose." He finally said after a few minutes.

It wasn't a well organized of an apology as it could have been, but Jason couldn't come up with anything better. He didn't want to admit it, because deep down he knew that the whole incident had not been his fault, he was actually feeling rather guilty about what had happened.

Tommy looked over at his friend with a warm smile, despite the minor twinge of pain he felt as the smile aggravated the bruises on his neck.

"Jase, buddy. It's not your fault. I don't think either one of us could have predicted it, or done anything. I know you couldn't have made those weights suddenly change to be too heavy for either one of us to lift. It was Beelzalea, and Lord Zedd and Rita, I just know it. Don't be blaming yourself for it. Besides, they didn't kill me so, I'm fine." Tommy stated trying to make Jason feel better.

"I mean, if Rocky hadn't stepped out, Beelzalea probably would have made it look like he was at fault for the accident." Tommy added.

Jason took a deep breath in. Well, Tommy still believed him, even if a majority of the other rangers didn't. If he was going to tell Tommy the truth, he better do it now. Even though Tommy might not like what Jason was about to tell him.

"Tommy, it _was _Rocky's fault that the accident occurred in the first place."

With that having been said, Tommy was looking as if he didn't believe what Jason was saying to him. Was his friend really laying the blame on another Ranger, despite the fact that he had just told him that he knew what was going on, and had already begun to suspect who was behind it?

He began to ask Jason about, but before he had gotten the first sound out of his mouth, Jason went on into explaining everything to him.

"Look, I know it's going to sound strange, and you're probably not going to believe me, but Rocky was responsible for the accident. He's been lying to us ever since he woke up from that nap yesterday." Jason began.

Aisha frowned. She was finding it a little difficult to believe Jason herself; since he seemed so positive that Rocky had truly been at fault for what had happened to Tommy, even though according to what she had heard from the others, Rocky had left the room long before the accident had occurred.

Of course, with Rocky's odd behavior, she wasn't going to put it past him to have something to do with it, and possibly for Jason's accusation to be true in some way, even if logic insisted otherwise.

"Ever since yesterday, haven't you noticed that he had constantly been looking tired?" Jason asked.

"Rocky's just going through a little bit of a rough time, with Adam having left without a word and all the recent monster attacks. He's probably seriously stressed out and exhausted, probably not getting enough sleep at night." Tommy countered, as if he were trying to disprove what Jason was telling him.

"Surely you're not the least bit suspicious that he hasn't been very nice or social since yesterday. He's been following us around, just watching us, as if he's planning something." Jason continued, seeing how his other argument didn't work.

Tommy shook his head, still not willing to believe him. "Again, I'm telling you Jason, its stress."

Aisha frowned. She believed Jason, even though Tommy didn't appear to be. She had noticed everything that Jason had pointed out, and was starting to draw the connections.

"...if you don't believe me, then when Rocky comes in here. Ask him to stand in front of a mirror, and take a look at his reflection." Jason finished, if Tommy didn't believe him now he didn't really care. He was certain that he had sparked Tommy's curiosity enough that the truth would be revealed soon.

Tommy sighed and shook his head. The truth was he didn't want to believe that a monster, like Jason was claiming, had actually snuck in under their noses and replaced their friend like that and had actually been responsible for the accident. To believe Jason's story, just made Tommy feel a little insecure. If a monster could sneak in under their noses like that and trick them all with a real clever disguise, who knew what was going to happen.

"Although, you may be right about Beelzalea being partially responsible for the accident. I think the monster or whatever it is that is making Rocky act like this, is her doing. I don't know exactly how, but I'm pretty sure that Rocky is in big trouble...and I don't know if there is a way to help him out." Jason finished.

* * *

Adam felt a cold chill run down his spine as he and the girl travelled. Even though it was late afternoon and they were still several miles from the Command Center, and it was well over 100 degrees, he couldn't help but feel something was wrong.

For a brief minute as the small group walked in silence, Adam had a call back to his dream. His eyes were focused on the blur of white that he had seen getting ripped to shreds. For the first time since the dream had begun, he could finally see the blur for what it was.

Adam realized, the white blur had been a combination of a purple blur, and a white blur. The purple blur, he could see what rabbit. Probably Ceres, now that he thought about it. It had vanished quickly, leaving only the white blur, which indeed was a falcon.

He looked over to the girl who was walking beside him carrying Ceres in her arms. If his dream meant anything, Ceres wouldn't live to the end of this trip, much less live as long as it would take to get back to the Command Center, and from the looks of it, neither was Tommy.

"Summtin-guh Buh-thur-eenguh...ya-you, Ahhhdahhmm?"The girl asked slowly and curiously as she looked at him.

Adam shook his head, giving the girl beside him a smile, deciding to change the subject, to the girl's most recent attempts at talking. Since they had headed out, Adam had been making an attempt to teaching the girl how to speak (Ceres had told him, that her adopted daughter had asked her to ask him to teach her how to talk. "She says she wants you to teach her how to talk like you do." Ceres had said.)

He had to admit he was rather impressed that she had managed to get as far as actually sounding out words, (even if she did add a slight accent to them, and still stretched some sounds out, and did still sound like she was clearing her throat when she said his name.)

Although, he was going back to helping the girl out with her speaking. He couldn't help but still feel a little worry, that something bad was happening with the other rangers, and while he knew he couldn't exactly just go and help them out, he hoped that they would all be able to pull through it alright.

* * *

Rita entered the workshop that she expected to find Beelzalea in. Her mother's Magi could usually be found in this room, if she wasn't resting in her room in the servants-quarters of the castle, or staring down at the Earth to keep an eye on the Rangers, (and since Rita had just come from the main-hall, and had heard reports that Beelzalea wasn't in the servants quarters, she must have been here.)

The room was littered with books, and gadgets and potions that to any other person would catch their interest and fascinate them. However, Rita didn't care about them. She found all these to be of no interest to her, since she would never have to use them in her life.

She found the white haired Magi sitting behind a large stack of thick books on a pile of cushions, a large book that had covers that were of a mossy-green shade sat in her lap. Her head was bent over the book, as she looked at the small print that was inscribed on the page.

Beelzalea's eyes, although Rita couldn't see them because they were hidden by the angle that Beelzalea's head was and the curtain of white hair that fell around Beelzalea's shoulders, were a solid vibrant red. The same red they turned when she had laid eyes upon Rocky.

Quickly, as Beelzalea raised her head to look her mistress in the face, she allowed her eyes to return to their normal color, as not to alert Rita that she had even had a thought about the Red Ranger in her head, much less was speaking to him behind her back.

As they fell on Rita, her eyes became a murky-reddish purple. The color they always had become when she had her attention on her.

"Please forgive my delay in my reply to your presence My Mistress Rita. I, was reading one of those Earthling fairy-tales, and found myself caught in its enchanting and whimsical tale of jealously, and envy. It reminded me much of the fairy-tales in the books that my mentor used to read to me when I was young. I had to give myself pause to untangle myself from its web, before I could respond to you." Beelzalea stated with a bow to Rita as she laid the book aside, (still open so she could remember where she left off.)

"It appears that my Mistress Rita is looking for a monster, of some kind. A monster, that while it will not be intended to kill the Rangers it will get them out of the way for long enough for Sleep-walker to kill?" She asked after a few seconds.

Rita nodded, "Never mind! I have an idea, we'll send down a couple of our old monsters, and capture the rangers, driving them onto the brink of insanity...or weakness, with the Mirror of Regret! I bet Zeddie still has that thing hidden around here somewhere..."

Beelzalea held up her hand and shook her head. "That plan will not work my mistress Rita. I am sorry to allow myself to tell you this news. Some of the Rangers have always been much too strong-willed throughout their lives that even if the Mirror of Regret were to find scenes from their past to use....it wouldn't do any good."

She then turned away from Rita and paced over to one of the books on the table that belonged to Finster. "Plus, the Mirror of Regret is best used on one person at a time. Its power is far more concentrated with only one viewer. To have eight Rangers viewing it, would greatly divide its strength, making it much less effective."

"Yes. It would be wise, not to use the Mirror of Regret in your plans my Mistress. Instead...maybe you would prefer a monster that is a little more enchanting? It would make Sleep-walker's job a little easier. Plus, I'm sure some of the Rangers would be glad to see an old acquaintance, aside from the former Crane."

Rita nodded as she left the room in search of Finster. Yes, she had an idea on what to do for this next monster. She would use that former Pink Ranger's souvenirs against her. When all of her friends were out of commission, Sleep-walker could easily destroy them. Plus, Kimberly wouldn't be able to defend herself from sleep-walker without her Ranger Powers.

Beelzalea smirked; at least it would be Finster making the monster this time. Instead of Zedd, the last time she had put enough trust in him to make the monster, it ended up having two left arms.

Beelzalea sighed as she watched Rita leave the room, She didn't quiet enjoy the fact that she already knew this plan should fail, in some way or another, but knew it had to be done.

"Well, I suppose its back to the story..."She muttered to herself with a smile as she picked up the book from the table and took her place on the cushions on the ground at the corner of the room.

"_Now, Ape---I mean---Rocky, where were we? Oh...right. I remember...Snow-White had just been taken to the woods to be killed by a man that her mother, the Queen, had ordered to kill her..." _

* * *

Kimberly and Kat had slipped into the room where Tommy was.

"Kim!" Tommy stated in shock when he saw the brunette wearing pink enter the room with Kat.

To this Kimberly gave a smile, "I was going to give this to you sort of as a souvenir, but I guess it'll work as a 'get-well-soon' gift too." she said as she handed Tommy a small statue of a falcon. Kimberly remembered when she had seen it; she just knew she had to get it as the souvenir she was bringing back for Tommy.

It had been a pain in the neck to find some souvenirs that she knew the others would like. She just wanted to show them that she still thought of them as friends, even though she had been gone.

Tommy smiled and thanked her for the gift as he examined the small detailed falcon statue. Placing it on the table beside his bed. Well, at least it would give him something to look at until he got back.

"From what I've heard things have been getting a little crazy for the Rangers lately." Kimberly began as she looked at Tommy and then to Kat, who had sat down on the other side of Tommy's bed.

Kat nodded, "You could defiantly say that." She said, giving a brief smile.

"Well, I just want you guys to know, that if you guys ever need any help...I'm here for you. I may not be a Ranger anymore, but like if you guys need to talk to anyone...like about anything. Or just need someone to cheer you up...then I can help." Kimberly said quietly as she looked over at the statue on the table beside her.

She really meant it. She may not be useful to them as a Ranger, but that wasn't going to keep her from offering emotional support if she had to.

Ever since she had left Angel Grove, when she had managed to get a break from practices, she had considered giving the Rangers a call. She had written to them, at least to Tommy and Aisha, almost every week to see how they were doing, and to keep them updated on her well being. Just sort of her way, to tell her friends that she cared.

Seeing how things were getting a little crazy in Angel Grove as of late, she felt rather bad about not being able to be there and help them tackle the evil that they were all facing. Ever since Aisha had explained the whole situation, she had made it her resolve to provide the Rangers with any type of support that she could.

After all, she felt that it would be a way to make up for the fact she wasn't much use toward the end of her Ranger days. Of course, not that she was really available to help them; after all she had a lot of training that she had to do. The Pan-Globals were important to her, and she was sure that they understood that to be able to compete in them was like a dream of hers, and knew that if she had any shot at it that she would have to pay a little bit more attention to her training, and try to balance out Ranger work too.

"Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude...but visiting hours are over. I'm afraid the two of you will have to come back later. Mr. Oliver needs his rest." A nurse said as she poked her head into the room.

Kimberly and Kat nodded, bidding Tommy goodbye as the two of them left the room. They met up with the others outside and decided to head to the park to spend the afternoon, at least until visiting hours started up again at the hospital.

* * *

Aisha was looking over at where "Rocky" sat; he was just sitting there under a tree watching them. It kind of upset her. If what Jason had been saying was true, then that wasn't Rocky.

Well, that certainly seemed believable, Aisha thought. That guy certainly didn't act like Rocky. Of course, it upset her knowing that if that wasn't Rocky, then there was no telling what had happened to the Rocky that was her friend.

She wondered if he was still alive, somewhere. He was probably in one of Rita and Zedd's dark dimensions, being held captive. She hoped if he was being held captive that Goldar, Rito, and that nasty bunch on the moon weren't putting him through too much hell. But personally he just hoped he was alive.

"Don't worry about him Aisha...We'll find a way to get Rocky back, and get rid of that other creep." Jason stated low enough for only Aisha to hear him, while keeping his eyes focused straight ahead of him.

Aisha crossed her arms. "I can't help it. It just feels like I'm losing my best friends. I mean, first Adam runs off without a goodbye, and then Rocky gets kidnapped and replaced with that absolute nightmare, and here I am...not knowing if either of them are alright, or still alive."

"Not only are Rocky and Adam fellow Rangers, but they're both my best friends, you know. I've known the both of them since as far back as I can remember. I just feel that I should be doing something. I mean just knowing that the both of them could be in danger, and there is nothing that I can do about it at this point just bugs me." Aisha whispered back.

Jason put his hand on her shoulder trying to be reassuring, although not knowing the correct words to reassure her with. How could he reassure someone that her friends were going to be alright, when even he didn't know that for a fact if either one of them would be alright?

* * *

"Why hello there Rangers! You know what I heard that your leader was in the hospital...and well, you guys look a little bummed out about it. So I thought, I know what'd cheer the Power Rangers up. A little visit from their old pal Rito!"

The sound of this voice caused the whole team to jump and turn toward the source of the voice. Rito stood there with a legion of Tengu and Putty flocking around him looking ready to attack the Rangers.

"Since when have you been our Pal Rito?! Personally we don't associate with someone as disgusting or as bone headed as you." Zack stated pointing toward Rito.

"Haha. Bone-headed, 'cuz I'm a skeleton...that's great. You, my friend, are funny!"

"I'm not your friend..." Zack warned narrowing his eyes on Rito.

"Well, for now you guys are. Since I've been ordered to keep you busy until the new monster gets finished!" Rito stated as he ordered the Tengu and putty to attack.

"Ninja Ranger Power!"

"The Crane!"

"The Bear!"

"The Wolf!"

"The Owl!"

"The Tiger!"

"The Hawk!"

"The Ape!"

As the Rangers called out their respective animal guardian spirits, a shower of lights and sparks surrounded them, morphing them into their Ninja forms.

Trini and Billy decided to stick close to Kim. Even though they knew that she could take out the Putty on her own, she really didn't have a chance against the Tengu un-morphed, and from the looks of things, there were more Tengu than Putty.

Sleep-walker laughed as two Tengu approached him, prepared to attack him, in order to keep up appearances that he was on the Ranger's side.

Being directly in the Ninja outfit came him more of a direct link to the Ape animal spirit. He could feel the powers, surging through him, although it was only a faint feeling of increased power.

Once the real Rocky was dead, the feeling of power should be amplified. Maybe, Sleep-walker thought, once Rocky was dead, his life-force could be worked out of the equation and he could gain back the power that had been lost when he had gone into his mind.

As the battle progressed, the Rangers found themselves in need of a little more power, and although they didn't want to, they all knew that they would have to call Tommy in from the hospital; they just hoped he would be well enough to help them out.

* * *

As soon as Tommy arrived though, that's when a flash of color appear beside Rito. Finster's monster was complete.

The monster appeared partially human, except that its skin was a light shade of green, and its hair was composed of vines that were covered in thorns. It wore a circlet of yellow flowers on its head.

"Who or what are you?" Tommy asked as he pointed his weapon at the monster that had just appeared.

The monster laughed. "I am the WitchBloom, not that you'll really be wanting to know that Ranger. You'll be dead in no time anyhow..."

As if on cue, Rito and the Tengu left the Rangers to do battle with WitchBloom.

Aisha charged at the monster, morphing into her Ranger form along with the others. She summoned her weapons to her hands, leaping into the air, slicing at the vines that the monster had launched at her.

Razor sharp leaves shot out the monster's hands as Aisha rushed at the monster. Sparks flew from Aisha's suit as the leaves tore through her.

She hadn't been alone in being hit by the attack either. Tommy, Billy, and Trini had also been hit, since they weren't too far behind her. Aisha however had received the brunt of the attack, being in the lead.

The force of the blast knocked Aisha's communicator from her wrist, sending it flying and landing on the grass a couple of feet away, near Kimberly's feet.

As Aisha and the others lay on the ground, trying to recover from the shock of the attack, as well as the attack itself, they didn't notice some of the WitchBloom's thorn-vine strands of hair creeping toward them.

"Guys! Watch out!!" Kimberly shouted as she noticed the vines creeping up on her friends.

Although, her warning came a little too late. The vines wrapped around her fallen friends, its sharp thorns piercing their Ranger suits.

A blast of energy was sent through these thorns, encasing the fallen Rangers in a large orb of light in their respective colors.

Witchbloom launched the lights toward the picnic table where, Kimberly noticed the others had laid the souvenirs from her. The lights vanished as they made contact with the objects, trapping the attacked Rangers inside the items.

"I think those prisons are much more suited for you Rangers anyhow. Material objects can be destroyed easily." Witchbloom laughed as she launched her thorn hair at the remaining Rangers, (minus Rocky)

Kimberly watched in horror as one by one the remaining Ranger rushed at the Witchbloom, and were imprisoned in the souvenirs that she had given to them. She just couldn't believe this was happening. Witchbloom seemed too strong for the Rangers.

Perfect, Sleep-walker thought as he viewed the scene from a distance. Witchbloom was certainly a useful monster; it had managed to trap those Rangers in easily destroyed objects. The Rangers wouldn't be able to fight back, which would make everything all the more better and easier for him.

It was a pity that he would have to destroy that Kimberly girl before he could destroy the other Rangers. The weakling human still posed a threat to him. Especially if Zordon managed to get a hold of her, and make her into a Ranger.

He began to approach Kimberly who had fallen to her knees, in front of the picnic table. Gasping in horror and disbelief about the others predicament.

_Oh my god, I can't believe this. This is how the Power Rangers end. Sure, Rocky is still here...but if Witchbloom took out the other Rangers that fast, he doesn't stand a chance. I can't believe that Rita and Zedd have finally won, and with a plant monster of all things. I can't even help them. _

Tears had begun to roll down her eyes as she realized she couldn't do anything. She couldn't get in contact with Zordon or Alpha, knowing that they would be the only people who could help.

* * *

Rocky watched the scene before him. He could see Witchbloom approaching Kimberly, aiming to join Sleep-walker in his attack against Kimberly. He knew that without the other Rangers there to protect her, she didn't stand a chance of living. He also knew that quiet literally at this moment, she was the only chance that the Rangers had.

As he watched, he noticed Aisha's communicator laying on the ground right next to Kimberly's feet. _That's it! _He thought, if he could somehow tell Kimberly to use Aisha's communicator there was still a chance that she could use it to teleport to the Command Center.

He watched as Witchbloom summoned up the razor leaves, launching them at Kimberly. From this point, time seemed to move in slow-motion. He had to tell Kimberly! He had to protect the last chance the Rangers had at this point.

Rocky could feel his determination glowing in his heart. He could almost see its glimmering red light making an attempt to break through the shadows of despair that had wrapped around it.

It took only a minute, for Rocky to realize, that glimmer wasn't more than his imagination. For a brief moment, that glow of red had encased him and the vines, causing them to loosen a slight bit.

He willed his physical body to run, and it obeyed. He soon found himself leaping right in the path of the Razor leaves, shielding Kimberly, while taking the stinging hits himself. He could feel the pain that the leaves caused as they tore through his skin. He almost wanted to laugh at it. For once he was back in control; he could actually feel the pain from something else other than what Sleep-walker had inflicted on him.

"Rocky!" Kimberly shouted as she watched Rocky take the hit for her, falling to the ground in front of her, smoke coming from the places in the ranger suit where the leaves had hit.

"K-Kimberly. Use...Aisha's communicator. C-Contact...Z-Zordon and get out of here, have Alpha teleport the others out...so you can try to get them b-back to normal." Rocky said to her through the pain, although his struggling in speech was only partially caused by pain, Sleep-walker was in the process of electrocuting him once more, to try to regain control.

* * *

Quickly, and without much protest, Kimberly grabbed the communicator at her side, crossing her fingers and tapping the device, hoping that it would respond and teleport her out of there quickly.

In a flash, Kimberly found herself on the cold floor of the Command Center.

"Kimberly!" Alpha stated in complete shock over seeing the former Pink Ranger there.

Quickly Kimberly got to her feet, and began to explain the situation to Zordon and Alpha; she knew that the hellos could be saved for later, the Rangers lives were in trouble.

"Zordon we've got to do something to help the other rangers!" Kimberly concluded in a panic after a few minutes.

Zordon nodded calmly, He understood perfectly that Kimberly was in a panic, and that she wanted to help out her friends. There really was only one way for this to be possible.

"Kimberly, you must return to the park and help out Rocky to defeat the Witchbloom monster. I sense that once it is defeated the others will return to their normal states."

Kimberly wrung her hands together. "How can I help? Zordon, if I go back there, that thing is going to kill me...I mean I don't even have any power..."

Almost as if responding to her, a power-coin and a morpher appeared out of thin air in her hands.

"Kimberly, this coin was once the Green Dragon Power-coin. Now it is the Green Turtle Ninja Power-coin, and now it is yours. Use it to battle against Witchbloom." Zordon stated as soon as Kimberly turned to give him a confused glance at the morpher that had just appeared in her hands.

Nodding, Kimberly held out the morpher. Determination was now in her heart to help her friends, and she had the means on how to do this. Even if she was using Tommy's old Power-coin from back in his day as the Green Ranger. It didn't matter; she had its power and could use it to protect her friends.

"Alright, it's morphing time! Green Ranger Power!" She shouted as the light shot from the morpher.

* * *

When the light cleared, Kimberly found herself in the park; her outfit had been changed to the green Ranger suit, complete with the shield that she remembered Tommy wearing a long time ago.

Witchbloom, and Sleep-walker (who had regained control over Rocky's body at this point) looked up in shock at the new Ranger who had appeared. Neither one of them were overjoyed by the appearance of this Ranger.

After all, the other rangers had vanished before they could destroy them, and now this new Ranger had appeared.

_Damn, that wretched human has gotten the Power-coin, thanks to the Red Ranger. This certainly complicates things..._Sleep-walker thought looking at the new Ranger.

"Alright. Listen up you wretched weed, your time's up! You picked the wrong girl's friends to attack! I want my friends back, and the only way for that to happen is if I stop you. So prepare to die!" Kimberly shouted, brandishing her weapon, (the dagger/flute that was used to control the Dragon Zord.) at the monster.

She rushed straight at the monster, leaping into the air. Witchbloom however countered, blasting her with a beam of energy. Knocking her out of the air.

"You think that's gonna stop me? Not a chance!" Kimberly shouted as she got to her feet once more.

She tossed her dagger at the WitchBloom, as it travelled through the air it transformed into a beam of green energy, slicing through the monster and causing it to recoil in pain as a large Explosion consumed it.

Jumping into the air, Kimberly caught the returning dagger, slicing at WitchBloom with it, before the Monster could do as much as move.

When it got the chance, it used its hair as a whip, slashing at Kimberly. Although, her shield deflected most of the attack.

"Alright, that's it..." Kimberly said when she had been knocked to the ground once more. She withdrew the blaster at her side and charged it up, switching it to blade-mode. At the same time she charged up the energy in the dagger.

She took one final leap into the air, and came down on Witchbloom, unleashing the combined powers of the two weapons.

In a brilliant flash of green, WitchBloom disintegrated, as Kimberly landed gracefully in the spot where WitchBloom had stood.

Kimberly stood for a few minutes, looking down at the weapons in her hands, as well as at her hands and her Ranger suit. It seemed exactly like old times, even if she didn't have the right color on. Honestly, she felt that she didn't look too bad as a Green Ranger, even if the suit lacked the skirt that her old Pink Ranger suit had.

* * *

Rocky could see the blurry figure of the green Ranger in his vision. Sleep-walker was punishing him for having managed to get control of himself...and so he couldn't see clear enough to actual make out the details of the Ranger that stood before him.

When Sleep-walker had stopped, Rocky found himself back with the vines around him at about the same strength as they had been moments ago.

His breathing was very shallow and jagged; as he tried to catch his breath each intake stabbed his lungs like a knife. His body shook with pain, and he was feeling a little light-headed and dizzy. He could barely hold his own head up, and he was sure that if he wasn't being suspended in the air by the grip of the vines, he probably wouldn't have been able to stand on his own, without passing out.

"_Looking good K-Kimberly..." _He breathed out, with a smirk on his face, as he made the attempt to look up to see what Sleep-walker was seeing.

_That was very brave...Rocky. Finding a way to protect a friend, even though knowing that Sleep-walker would be furious and step-up his punishment. _The voice in his head stated gently to him.

For a brief minute, Rocky swore he could feel a cold hand upon his warm face. The coldness of the hand was almost a relief to him. Looking over, through his blurry vision he found that no one was there.

_Now, how about we finish the story we were on before this whole fight started?_

Rocky smiled, wincing in pain and coughing as some of the blood that had been running down his face ran into his mouth.

_"That would be great..."_ he thought as he made an attempt to relax and keep his mind off the pain.

* * *

"Rocky, we'd better get back to the Command Center; everyone should be back to normal by now. Hopefully." Kimberly said as she looked toward "Rocky"

Sleep-walker frowned behind the Red Ranger helmet. He had heard about the security of the Command Center from his creators. Only those with a Power-coin could enter. He was pretty sure that even though, Rocky's Power-coin recognized him as the red ranger that the Command Center wouldn't...and would know that he wasn't Rocky. Thus exposing him for who he really was immediately.

If that didn't happen, then the all knowing Zordon, or possibly even Alpha would know. After all, Zordon seemed to have known something was up since yesterday, when he had sent him with the team that was going to find the Elemental monster. It had almost seemed like Zordon had known, and knew that he shouldn't allow "Rocky" near the Command Center.

"I think I'm going to stay here for a little while. I'll meet up with you guys later." He said as he took a look around, seeing that there wasn't anyone around, before he powered down his morph, returning to wearing the clothing that Rocky normally wore.

Kimberly nodded, before touching the morpher on her belt, and teleporting back to the Command Center to check on the others.

Sleep-walker frowned as he watched her leave. This was starting to get way more complicated than he had planned for.

Undoubtedly the other Rangers had returned to normal, so if he were to fight them now, he would have to face Eight Rangers head on.

On top of that, Rocky still wasn't dead, so Sleep-walker's power was still not at full, nor did he have complete control over the Powers of the Ape Animal Spirit, so if he had to face the Rangers...while his power would be a little more stronger than the Red Rangers, especially when combined with the Red Ranger's powers, it might not be enough to defeat Eight Rangers.

Plus there was no telling when the Black Ranger would be returning. If it happened before he could attempt to kill the other Rangers, he wouldn't have to be worried about fighting Eight Rangers, and instead he would have to worry about taking on Ten Rangers alone. He definitely knew his power wouldn't be enough to handle that.

Then there was the incident that had occurred earlier. Rocky, had somehow found a way to break the hold of the shadow-vines over his heart and body, allowing him to take control of his own body, just long enough to protect Kimberly, and tell her what she should do.

He knew that if Rocky got the chance to do this again, he wouldn't be able to attack the Rangers. Aside from the fact that Rocky would have control to keep himself from attacking them, Sleep-walker would be too busy trying to keep Rocky from interfering, that he wouldn't be able to focus on killing the other Rangers.

* * *

Kimberly arrived at the command center just in time to see the others change back to normal. They were all sitting on the ground of the command center, still in their ranger suits, holding the souvenirs they had been trapped in moment before in their hands.

"What happened?" Zack asked as he started to take off his helmet, touching his forehead as he tried to get his thoughts straight.

The others looked around at one another. "I-I dunno. All I remember was being attacked by that Witch-bloom monster...." Aisha said as she flexed her fingers trying to regain feeling in them.

"Oh no! Kimberly! Rocky! That monster better not have hurt them!" Trini said as she remembered the two who were not accounted for in the Command Center.

Tommy slowly got to his feet; his eyes weren't leaving the Ranger that stood before him. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was the Green Ranger.

"Oh thank god you guys are alright. I thought for awhile back there that you guys were done for!" Tommy heard the voice of the person behind the Green Ranger helmet say as he watched the Green Ranger rush over and help Kat to her feet.

"Kimberly?" Tommy asked, hardly able to contain his joy and disbelief as he heard the former Pink Ranger's voice come from behind the Green Ranger helmet.

At this Kimberly took off her helmet, and smiled broadly at him, and held out her arms, as if she were showing off an outfit that she thought was cute.

"Yup. I guess when I said that I would be here to help you guys out, by offering as much support as I can, I didn't intend for that support to come in the form of taking up the your former Powers. Pretty cool huh? So how do I look?"

Tommy smiled as he put his hands on Kimberly's shoulders, and looked down into her eyes, He was so glad to see Kimberly back on team.

"It's not pink, but you look just as good." Kat chirped happily as she embraced her friend in a one-armed hug.

Aisha smiled. "It's gonna be kinda weird seeing you running about in Green, you know that. But I'm sure with your sense of style you'll end up starting a whole Green Fashion trend, girl." She joked.

Billy smirked as he adjusted his glasses and looked at Kimberly... "Well, if that doesn't work, you could always dye the suit pink, and we could have two Pink rangers running about."

Kimberly smiled as she looked over at Kat, "I dunno Billy, I think I'm going to stick with this for now. One Pink Ranger on the team is enough."

* * *


	7. A Twist of Green Part II

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to power rangers.

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* * *

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**Chapter Seven: A Twist of Green- Part II**

Mr. Park frowned as his wife looked at herself in the mirror before turning around and asking the question that she already knew the answer to because they had ended up in this converstation enough times with in the last few hours, that Mr. Park had actually lost count (since after the fourth time he had begun to keep a count..eventhough after at least the 14th time he had lost count...)

"Do I look okay?"

"You look fine, honey."

"Are you sure? I mean did I put my make-up on too darkly?"

"No, your make-up is fine."

"This dress isn't too nice is it? I mean I wanna look nice, but not over-dressed."

He knew that his wife's behavior, and all of the other things she did that could qualify her as being a little obsessive compulsive were mainly done to keep her busy, and to keep her mind off Adam.

It had been close to a week since Adam had vanished without a word, and it was really keeping both his parents worried. He saw her every time that she even passed by Adam's room, she was holding back tears at the mere fact that it brought back memories from a few days ago.

Although she had managed to gain her composure in front of others, especially the neighbors, there were times when something would happen, and she would have to excuse herself from the conversation, and he would usually find her in the kitchen trying to dry tears from her eyes.

"Honey, you look beautiful." He said gently, taking his wife's hands, and holding them for several seconds, while he gave her a kiss on the cheek, as not to ruin her lipstick, (which in this current situation was the last thing that he wanted to do, because it would prompt his wife to go re-apply her lipstick...in which he would be spending the next hour and a half trying to convince her that her lipstick wasn't on too dark and that the color looked okay.)

Mrs. Park blushed "I know. It's just...you know this lunch is kind of special. I mean, I haven't seen Jin since I was in High School. I just want to make sure that I look good." She stated quietly as she pushed a few strands of her dark hair out of her face.

"Come on, honey. I doubt that Jin is going to even care about how you look. The woman was your best friend in High School; I bet she'll be so happy to see you that she's not even going to care how you look. Now you relax and try not to have too much fun without me okay?" Mr. Park reassured his wife, as she left the house.

_

* * *

_

Hm. What story do you want to hear now, Rocky?

Rocky mentally shrugged, this voice in his head had pretty much read all the fairy tales and stories that he was familiar with.

_Well, let's see here...how about Grumble the Magic Elf?_

_"No!"_ Rocky shouted to the voice as the name of the book was mentioned. He remembered that book all too well, since Rita and Zedd had decided that it would be funny to trap him, Kimberly, and Tommy in the story and then attempt to make sure they never got out of the book.

"_Anything but that one, unless you __want __me to kill myself..." _

The voice laughed at Rocky's sudden protest over that book in particular. _Hm. You are right....a book about an elf that is under the spell of a foul magician...that isn't even strong enough to make Grumble mean enough to not take those toys to those children? Much too dull." _

_Well, how about we take a break from these Earthling stories? I'll tell you a couple of "fairy" tales that I was raised hearing? How about that?_

"_Sounds okay, I guess. Better than Grumble the Magic Elf."_

* * *

Zedd walked about the palace trying to think of a plan of action against Beelzalea. She had been silent for the last few days, which while it was nothing new for the Magi it was making him incredibly nervous.

The last time that he had been passing by Finster's workshop, he had managed to catch a glance of her sitting there, looking at a large book. He could barely see her eyes, but it was enough to tell that they were a vibrant red.

He had watched her lips occasionally form words, as if she were talking to someone. When he had listened closely to her for a minute he could have sworn he heard her say the name of the Red Ranger.

That confirmed it. If Beelzalea was even putting forth the effort to speak to a Ranger behind their backs, and in tones that sounded almost as if she were trying to be, Zedd could barely stand the word as in rang through his head, _nice_, then obviously she had a weak-spot for the Red Ranger, even if she denied it.

This could be used against her, but exactly how?

He could expose her to Rita and Minerva, but he was sure she would find some convincing cover story, like she was only doing this to keep the Red Ranger busy to keep him from trying to fight against Sleep-walker or something along those lines.

No, exposing her to Rita and Minerva was much too easy for her to worm her way out of. There had to be something else that Zedd could do, that would keep her from making the attempt to get rid of him. Even if just for a little while.

* * *

"Rocky. Hun?" Mrs. Desantos asked as she managed to catch "Rocky" leaving the house through the back door.

Sleep-walker looked up at Mrs. Desantos questioned, partially wondering how she had caught him trying to sneak out the back door, when she had been in another room not but a second before, looking at the mail...and he had barely made a sound.

"You mind running to the grocery store for me? I thought we had more chicken in the refrigerator than we do, but apparently I was mistaken. Either that or a certain couple of men cooked it up ate it as a midnight snack....which would explain why I woke up mysteriously smelling cooking chicken at 11:30 last night."She stated. Her voice trailing off into a teasing tone by the end of it, as she shot playful glares at Mr. Desantos and her son.

Mr. Desantos smirked as he walked into the room. "Hey, I seem to recall a certain man's wife sharing that chicken with that certain man and their teenage son last night, during that so-called midnight snack during that Sci-Fi movie marathon." He stated with a teasing grin.

Mrs. Desantos laughed as she made a face at her husband, that Sleep-walker recalled as being similar to the face that some of the little children at the park made to one another when they were teasing the other one, although not using any verbal insults.

"Anyhow, Rocky, if you're heading out, would you mind picking up a few things on this grocery list, here's Twenty dollars. That should cover it." Mrs. Desantos said as she handed "Rocky" a short list of items that she wanted him to pick up.

Although Sleep-walker didn't want to be running errands for this woman, he really didn't have any other choice. He knew that Rocky, would obey this woman that he called his "mother" and go to the grocery store on this errand. If he didn't go, then Rocky's family would start getting suspicious.

As he was heading out the door Mrs. Desantos stopped him again.

"Wait a minute there young man. You're not really planning on going out looking like that, are you?"

Sleep-walker raised an eyebrow, he was beginning to wonder if all humans' mothers were like this, finding something wrong with their kid's appearance or something and then making them delay their plans to go and correct the problem, until they found it decent. It got a little irritating, and almost made him glad that he was a monster, and not actually human.

"Go brush your hair out. It's really starting to get irritating, being a mess like that."

Sleep-walker sighed and walked back to the bathroom in order to comb out his hair. Even though, he knew it would be little difficult only being able to see his own reflection in the mirror.

* * *

Tommy had been released from the hospital earlier that morning, when they had released Tommy; neither of his parents could make it to the hospital to pick him up, since they both were at work. Jason had agreed to go and pick Tommy up from the hospital instead.

Both of the teenagers had been silent most of the ride back to Tommy's house. Jason was wondering if Tommy was still a little bitter about their argument yesterday, when he had tried to convince Tommy that the accident had been "Rocky's" fault.

"Hey, Tommy. About yesterday..." Jason began, although Tommy cut him off before he had finished his apology.

"Hey, don't worry yourself about it bro. It's already forgotten."

Jason bit his lip as he decided to continue on, trying to think of how to word his thoughts, without out making them sound like they could be taken the wrong way.

"Look, Tommy. Ever since I left, I've been wondering a couple of things. I sort of let them go to the back of my mind, and they've been eating away at me for awhile now, but I think we really need to talk. There are just a couple of things I have to get off my chest. I was thinking maybe the two of us could go out to the desert, and go and look for some arrow-heads, to give us some time to discuss some things."

For awhile, Tommy was silent. He couldn't possibly think of what Jason and he had to discuss, that would take the whole afternoon to do so, and he couldn't just talk about right then and there.

He decided to agree with Jason's idea, telling himself that it would be a good chance to relax and find out exactly all what his old friend had been up to since he had left.

Once the agreement was reached that tomorrow Tommy and Jason would go into the desert to do some digging for arrow-heads, they both pretty much dropped the subject of having things to talk about.

* * *

"We should be at the Command Center by late tomorrow." Adam pointed out to Ceres, as he double-checked his calculations on the distance.

Personally, he kind of wished that Billy were here, Billy would know for sure how much longer this trip was going to take, and wouldn't be easily tripped up by the math of calculating distance.

Adam wasn't entirely sure that he was even heading in the right direction at this point anyhow. He silently hoped that he was heading in the right direction. He'd hate to think that he was just leading them away from the Command Center.

He blamed part of his uncertainty on the fact that he had a bad feeling that something was going to happen soon. Mainly in the way of an attack.

After all it had been much too calm on his part for awhile. He was beginning to wonder if that group on the moon had forgotten all about him, even though it wasn't likely. He wondered if the relative calm that was going on around him meant that Rita and Zedd had turned their attentions to the other Rangers.

Of course Adam's bad feelings were right. No sooner had the thought left his head, did he hear the flapping of Tengu feathers and the mumbling of what Adam immediately identified as the sound that a Putty made.

As the Tengu and Putty circled them, Adam cast a look to the girl beside him, she was looking around rather confused and surprised, of course he wasn't surprised since he knew that she had never seen the likes of the Putty and Tengu and was wondering what these strange creatures were.

"Remember when I was telling you about the Tengu and Putty?" Adam asked as he fell into a defensive position as he kept his eyes on the Tengu and Putty that surrounded them.

The girl nodded as she readied the spear she had been carrying falling into the position that she usually fell into when she was keeping her eyes on her prey during a hunt.

"Them?" She asked pointing at the monsters that surrounded them.

Adam nodded. "Looks like we'll have to fight them." He muttered shaking his head. Personally he didn't feel like messing with these creeps today.

Of course, Adam thought with a slight smirk, he did have a score to settle after all these bird-brains were the ones who had attacked him a couple of days ago, and could have possibly been responsible for his death since they had destroyed all the survival supplies he had brought with him, and he hadn't exactly forgiven them for that.

"Alright, I'll handle the birds; you take out the clay-creeps." Adam said glancing over at the girl beside him.

She nodded, understanding what Adam was telling her, she would be handling the monsters dressed in grey. Although, the one question that came to her mind that kept her from attacking....

"How?"

"Aim for the center of the chest..." Adam answered, pointing at his own chest with his thumb in order to demonstrate to her where she should be attacking the Putty she would be handling.

The girl nodded once more and rushed at a Putty that had made a move towards them. As she leapt into the air, she used her spear as a bit of a pole-vault hurling herself toward the Putty.

She landed rather clumsily, one foot landing on the "Z" on the Putty's chest knocking it down while her other foot landed on the Putty's neck, The Putty began to squirm for several seconds before she lost her balance and fell of it, and it died as she got to her feet and proceeded to take out another.

Adam dodged the poorly thrown punch of a Tengu before knocking it to the ground with a low sweeping kick before turning around and upper-cutting one Tengu that was coming at him.

As the Tengu fell, Adam glanced over toward the girl, she was completely ignoring the fact that she had a weapon and was resorting to using her own force to take out the Putty, from what he could see she pretty much had a control on the situation on her part.

One of the Tengu leapt at Adam, attempting to knock him down. He vanished in a brief spark of fire, causing the Tengu to land flat on its stomach.

The Tengu were looking around trying to find the missing black ranger. For the second time since they had faced him in the last few days he had completely vanished when he had been in their sight not but a split second earlier.

The girl looked over toward the confused Tengu as she stepped on another Putty's chest, and elbowed another that was behind her before taking hold of its arm and tossing it over her shoulder in front of her, eliminating the last of the Putty.

_Ceres, where's Adam?! _She asked in a slight panic as she scanned the battle field for any sign of the black clad Ninja.

_"Don't worry about him. I'm sure he's okay. Look out behind you!" _Ceres shouted.

The girl turned quickly although having responded to Ceres's warning a little too late, and was decked by a Tengu causing her to stagger a couple of feet, right into to another Tengu.

The Tengu managed to restrain her, despite the fact that she was struggling furiously causing her to drop the spear she had been carrying up until this point.

Suddenly, a black gloved hand shot up from the sand, taking hold of the Tengu's foot and threw him off balance, causing the Tengu to let go of the girl. She just stood there, finding herself screaming in terror over this strange occurrence, as she watched the hand retract into the ground, leaving nothing but the solid ground behind.

Out of nowhere, only a few seconds later, Adam appeared, knocking one of the Tengu down.

The girl, although over-come with relief that Adam was alright, was still a bit freaked out by what she had seen earlier, that she wasn't paying much attention to what exactly was going on in the battle.

"Hey! Look out!" Adam called as he rushed toward the girl, seeing that she was about to get attacked by the Tengu nearby her.

She snapped back to her senses in enough time to dash to pick up the spear that had fallen to the ground, and spin around to the Tengu, ramming the spear into it, with all the force she could summon. Shattering the spear into pieces, and taking down the Tengu.

For several seconds after she stood there, staring in amazement that she had managed to put that much force behind her weapon that it would shatter the sturdy spear into pieces. Of course, she was down a hunting weapon which really bummed her out. That had been her favorite weapon after all.

As she stared in amazement she was put in a headlock by a Tengu, from out of the corner of her eye, she could see that one Tengu was chasing Ceres about. "Leave...her alone!" She shouted trying to break free of the Tengu's grasp.

Adam took down the Tengu that had been bothering him for the last few minutes, before coming to their aid. Seeing how these two Tengu were the only two monsters still standing. As he made a leap toward them he activated one of his Ninja powers, knowing this one would come in handy in taking out both the Tengu at the same time.

Of all the special powers that the Ranger's Ninjetti powers had given them, Adam had to admit that the ability of "Multiplication"...or the ability to create several copies of one's self to control, was by far the weirdest, and if not the weirdest it ran a pretty close second.

While his mind and soul was still in his actual body, he could also see the battle from the other one's vision. Plus, seeing himself fighting out of the corner of his own eye was a little crazy. Not to mention it got a little disorienting, especially after the whole thing just happened.

It took Adam a brief second to get his senses together, now having control over two separate entities, being able to view the battle from another set of eyes.

"Talk about double vision." he joked, his voice coming from his "twin" at the same time, creating a bit of a strange echo effect.

The two rushed at the Tengu, the real Adam taking the one that was chasing Ceres about while the copy took on the one that was restraining the girl.

Since Adam hadn't yet gotten the hang of this ability, he hadn't learned how to control the clone him to be able to not fight using a mirror of what he was doing, he just tried to get his attacks on the Tengu he was battling to avoid causing harm to the girl that his other self was facing.

In a matter of seconds both Tengu were down, and the whole bunch had retreated...even the one that had been severely injured by the spear.

As the battle came to a close, allowing the others to recover and return to relative peace Adam approached the girl, who was sitting on the ground staring up at his clone with a look of wide-eyed shock.

He could just read her mind with her expression: "_Oh my god, the man's a freakin' magician!" _He almost had to laugh at her amazement, and a little bit at the terror that was on her face.

"Sorry about that. I was hoping to get you introduced to the Tengu a little bit slower than that." He said as he approached her, dismissing his clone, by stepping into its spot as the clone's image wavered like a hologram for a brief second before vanishing.

As he helped her up, he tried to calm her down, by explaining everything that she had just seen, realizing that she was probably more freaked out about him using his Ninja powers than she had been of the Tengu and Putty.

* * *

Sleepwalker frowned as he wandered the aisles of the supermarket. He had been here for the last thirty minutes wandering around here.

As he headed to the cash register after picking up the last of the items on the list, he began to think bitterly

If his mission wasn't to avoid alerting the other Rangers, of his identity while trying to kill them, he'd have done blown this place up, and probably had gone ahead and killed Rocky's family, setting fire to the house.

Sleepwalker was beginning to get seriously irritated with how long this was taking, He couldn't just out right kill the Power Rangers, not while Rocky was still alive..And suppressing his powers.

But then again, Sleep-walker thought bitterly with a glance over his shoulder mentally to where Rocky was entangled in the vines, Rocky had a strong will to live, and no matter what still held a small ounce of hope in his heart despite the all the torturing that he had been put through(which is what was keeping the vines from reaching their full strength, even though Rocky had struggled enough for them to have already crushed him if he hadn't had that tiny glimmer of hope in his heart.).

It didn't appear that Rocky would be keeling over anytime soon. Much to Sleep-walker's disappointment.

As Sleep-walker paid for the groceries and then carried them back out to Rocky's Jeep, loading them in the back, and climbing into the driver's seat. He began searching through the keys that Rocky carried around looking for the key that started the car. (Kind of like what every other human would do, Sleep-walker mused.)

"Running errands are we Sleep-walker? A little too human of an activity for a monster....."

Sleep-walker continued to stare straight ahead as he heard the voice of the person who had just showed up in the passenger seat.

"What do you want Zedd? Come to punish me for not killing the white Ranger the other day?" He asked glancing out of the corner of his eye to look at Zedd.

There was a silence that hung in the air between the two of them for several minutes, before Zedd took the opportunity to speak once more to Sleep-walker.

"Don't you feel a little bit bored, with having to try to stay in the shadows, pretending to be that wretched Red Ranger?" Zedd asked off-handedly.

Sleep-walker grimaced; obviously Zedd had been keeping an eye of him to know that he was getting frustrated with this mission. If Zedd was keeping his eyes on him, and had taken the effort to appear there on Earth, then obviously Sleep-walker knew that Zedd had some sort of problem with the whole mission, or at least a problem with how he was carrying it out.

"Or, are you starting to enjoy this human life? After all, maybe that's what's been keeping you from carrying out your mission. You've adapted so much to that Power brat's life that you actually feel like you are human? You're not turning good on us are you?" Zedd asked in a sinister mocking voice.

Sleep-walker gripped the steering wheel. Although he had only been created a few days ago, he already knew...almost by instinct that he didn't like Zedd, and that to be called human...and good was an insult.

"Get on with it already Zedd. What did you come here for?" He growled harshly, without even looking over at Zedd.

Zedd laughed evilly as he put his hand on Sleep-walker's shoulder, "There's no need to be impatient Sleep-walker. I was getting to my point."

"Tomorrow the Gold and White Rangers are going to go out into the desert, in search of arrowheads. Your new mission is to launch an attack on the remaining Rangers, while the two strongest Rangers are away."

Sleep-walker glanced over. So Zedd wanted him to take out six rangers. Hm. That sounded easy enough. Plus, the two most difficult Rangers to deal with would be out of the way. That sounded fun, and easy enough. Plus if he could take out six rangers single-handedly, he knew that he would feel that he had redeemed himself for yesterday's incident.

He was looking forward to this Ranger massacre.

Zedd inwardly smirked at his own plan. He knew that Sleep-walker would carry out his orders without any question. Even though, the plans that he had just given to Sleep-walker weren't being given to him from the people who had originally given him his mission, he knew that Sleep-Walker would carry it out. If he could get Sleep-walker to defeat Six Rangers single-handedly, then he could finally prove that he was superior to Beelzalea.

As he vanished from the passenger seat, Sleep-walker smiled darkly at his own refection in the mirror.

_Enjoy today while you can...Rangers. Because it'll be your last...._

* * *

Kat took a deep breath as she looked at the sparkling blue water several feet below her. As she readied herself at the edge of the diving platform she couldn't help but feel a little jolt of terror and excitement run through her simultaneously.

It was usually the feeling she got whenever she practiced diving. At least, the surge of excitement was the feeling that she had gotten from this. The terror was mainly remnants of the fear of this dive turning out to be much like the horrible accident that had taken her away from the sport for awhile in the first place.

Turning her back to the edge of the diving platform, Kat took another deep breath before pushing off, and beginning her plummet into the shining blue waters below her.

As she fell, she did a couple of graceful back flips before executing a near-perfect swan-dive into the water. A move that she had been working on perfecting for the last few weeks now.

Kat had to admit, she loved the rush of Olympic Diving. Falling through the air from the diving platform, knowing that you only had a few seconds to perform the technique before your entire body hit the water.

She could almost recall the feel to the competition. Hearing her family and her friends cheering her on before the dive, wishing her luck. The roar of tension filled silence as she stood up at the top of the platform ready to make the dive, a silence that lasted until the minute she hit the water, where it would explode into a roar of applause and cheering even though muffled by the water, but growing louder as she surfaced to stand by with her family, friends and team-mates to await the judges score.

As Kat surfaced from this dive she heard the dispersed clapping of a couple of the other rangers who had come down to the pool to watch her train. It was mainly just Kimberly, Trini, and Billy, but even with her friends cheering her on during this practice made her feel like she was really in a competition.

"That was awesome!" Kimberly stated from the edge of the pool as she walked over to help Kat get out of the pool, and hand her a towel to dry off with.

Kat smiled as she patted her face dry and wrapped the towel around her shoulders. "I still need to work on it, I messed up at bit on the ending." she stated.

Trini put her hand on Kat's shoulder, "I'm sure you'll do better on it next time, and if not you've just got to keep practicing and I'm sure you'll get it." she stated encouragingly.

With a smile, Kat headed over to where she had put her stuff, so that she could check the pager that her mom never let her leave home without.

As she looked through her bag, she began to feel a little light-headed and dizzy. The more and more she searched her bag for her pager, the more light-headed she became, until she eventually had to stop and nearly catch herself from falling as she felt as if she were going to pass out.

It was weird, but ever since this morning, she had been having these weird dizzy spells. She wasn't exactly sure why, but the dizzy spells seemed to have something to do with her morpher. She only figured this since the spells only occurred when she could see her morpher, like now. She could see her morpher, just over the edge of some of the folds in the change of clothing she had brought to change into after this practice.

As soon as she covered up the morpher, her feeling of light-headedness seemed to lessen.

When Kat had almost fallen, Trini, who had been there to catch her, was glancing back at Billy and the others with a little bit of a concerned glance. This hadn't been the first time that they had witnessed this since this morning, which really had gotten them concerned.

Kimberly had this same incident happen to her just before they had come over to the pool to watch Kat. At first they shrugged it off as nothing, Kimberly was just feeling a little dizzy, which Kimberly dismissed as being just because she hadn't eaten breakfast yet, and that her body was still adjusting to the new power.

Most of them recalled that for a couple of days after they had become Rangers, they had to adjust to the additional powers that they had been given, and for some people that adjustment came with flashes of feeling ill, and dizzy-spells.

However, this new incident worried them, It wasn't like Kat to start having dizzy-spells and such, and especially not conveniently on the same day that Kimberly was having them. Plus, they knew Kat's dizzy-spells didn't have anything to do with her adjusting to her power, since she had already gotten over that ages ago.

Although, the only thing that they could do about this was to ask Zordon, if he had anything to do with their powers, then he would know.

....and if it didn't have anything to do with their powers, then they could always consult a doctor if it got any worse.

"We should talk to Zordon about this...I've got a bad feeling that this is something serious..." Billy stated to Trini as they watched Kat head to the locker-room to change.

"I don't think we should contact Zordon just yet. Right now, Kat's dizzy-spell could be just minor sickness." Trini stated shaking her head.

There really was no need of contacting Zordon right now, not when the situation could be regarded as something other than an immediate, life-threatening, Ranger emergency.

* * *

"..._The Princess waited for the peasant-girl that night at the spring, where she had heard that the peasant girl often would come with the Prince. As she sat waiting at the spring, the Princess's jealously began to grow...What was her Prince doing hanging around some commoner? What could her Prince possibly see in that girl? She wasn't attractive, and as she had stated before she was a commoner. "_

_"As the time passed the Princess began to grow thirsty, and so she drank from the spring. At last when she spotted the peasant girl and the Prince coming, she decided it was time to confront her. The Princess intended to drown the peasant girl in the spring due to her jealousy; as well she intended to drown the Prince for his infidelity."_

_"Little did the Princess know that the spring that she had drunk from was enchanted. It reacted with her jealously, transforming her into a very serpent like creature. With this new form...The Princess mercilessly slaughtered the peasant girl, and the Prince, rather than drowning them...in case the spring would have brought them back to life had she killed them in it instead."_

_"Once the Princess had rid herself of them she found that her need for bloodshed and vengeance did not die with them. From that point on, the Princess would hunt down and mercilessly kill all those who stood in her way, especially those of pure good who displayed their affections for each other right in front of her...since it brought back memories of her Prince, and the peasant girl." _

Rocky had been hearing this story and others like it for awhile. While he knew that they were fairy-tales from the culture that the voice in his head belonged to, which by his guess was an alien-race since at points in time, she would make mentions of some strange town, or creature.

He was almost certain that a lot of the stories that this woman was told as a child were the type of tales that if any other parent were to be telling them, they would be changing up drastically, as to make it seem happier. The Princess and the Peasant girl might have just talked out their issues...and the spring would have just made the Princess ugly, and not a merciless demon. No one would have died, and they all would have lived happily ever after.

Most of the fairy-tales that he had been told in the last few hours were in a way rather twisted and unconventional...since they never seemed to end with the protagonist coming out of the situation good, if at all.

"_You know, I'm surprised a person like you who's was raised hearing those stories...turned out to be as relatively nice as you are....whoever you are." _Rocky commented a few minutes after the voice had finished the story.

He knew that his comment, must have either struck a nerve or completely embarrassed the person that the voice in his head belonged to, because he heard them give a slight sigh, followed up by a rather disapproving grunt.

"_But...I just have one question...."_ Rocky found himself asking. This question had been at the back of his head for quite awhile, and he had been meaning to ask, but he just hadn't bothered until now.

He heard the voice make a sound as if signaling to him that he had her attention, and to continue on with his question.

"_Why?"_

When no explanation came from the voice after a few seconds, Rocky continued on, to better understand exactly what he was asking why about.

"_Why exactly are you--you know...reading to me?"_

He heard the voice, give a small laugh at the comment. As if she found it funny, even though it was a very sincere and innocent question, which Rocky had been wondering about.

There was a long silence between them, before the voice began speaking again, "_I guess, I wanted some way to help you keep your mind off of a few things...and by the looks of things, it's worked. I mean, notice that you haven't made any attempts at struggling or killing yourself. You've barely noticed the pain you've been in..." _

Rocky took note, that the voice had been right, ever since she had been reading him these fairy-tales, he hadn't made any attempt to escape or struggle, and he barely noticed that he was injured badly. He was actually rather relaxed. In fact he had just sat by and listened to every word she had said to him, as if she had been reading these stories to a little kid.

He was almost glad that his face was covered in blood at that moment, because if it hadn't been, he knew that it would have been painfully obvious that he was turning rather pink in the face from embarrassment.

Knowing the answer, he felt kind of like a moron for having even wondered why in the first place. It seemed like a logical reason after all. He didn't know why he hadn't figured it out sooner.

"..._um Thanks."_ Rocky stated quietly.

The voice remained silent for several seconds upon hearing the word, Rocky found it odd, because usually some people would be accepting the thanks by now. Instead, the voice he heard made a few uncertain noises, as if they didn't know what to say in return.

...or if they were embarrassed themselves, which Rocky took the guess that either one of those options could be correct, because in a matter of seconds, the voice had begun to tell him another story.

* * *

"I just think it's so great that we could get together like this." Jin, Mrs. Park's friend from High school, stated as they sat at the small cafe. "When I ran into your mother at the department store the other day, and she told me that you had moved to Angel Grove, I just knew I had to stop by and pay you a visit. I'm just glad that we were able to arrange a date where both of us were off work!"

Mrs. Park smiled and nodded in agreement, adding a small laugh.

"So, tell me, what exactly have you been up to since we graduated?" Jin asked propping her head up on her hands as she spoke, prepared to listen intently to Mrs. Park's story.

Mrs. Park smiled slightly as she began to recount the story to her old friend, "Well, after High school...I spent a two years at Angel Grove University working on my teaching degree, before enrolling in a program at the university to travel abroad. I spent two years in Korea, where I completed my degree." She began with a sigh as she recalled the whole thing.

"I also met Mr. Park, in college. After we finished College, and got married, the two of us lived there in Korea for awhile, until like five years after our son was born...that was about when my mother in law decided to move to Stone Canyon, so that she could be close to her sisters, it was a short time after her husband died."

Mrs. Park stopped for a brief moment as she thought about this, she wasn't exactly sure if her times were right, since it had happened so long ago in the past that it seemed to run together with other events that had happened.

"Yes, I'm sure that's about right, I remember debating about whether or not we should enroll Adam in Kindergarten...and my father in law died a few months after Adam's fifth birthday, and my mother in law was making plans to move to Stone Canyon about that time, even though we all knew it would be a few months before the move would actually be carried out. So I decided against it until we had moved to Stone Canyon." She thought out loud as she tried to get things sorted out.

"Anyhow, we moved back there with her, and found our own place, I taught Art at the High school in Stone Canyon for awhile. We moved to Angel Grove a couple of years ago when my husband's job transferred him over here, which was almost perfect timing because I had just gotten enough money saved up to open up the Art studio I had been wanting to start for years, and Angel Grove seemed like the perfect place to start."

"So, since then, I've pretty much been living in Angel Grove, with my husband and son, teaching art classes to anyone in the community willing to sign up and take them." She finished with a smile.

Jin smiled, glad that it seemed like Mrs. Park had been living a pretty good life since she had last seen her and was glad that Mrs. Park was getting to do what she always wanted to do, ever since she had known her.

"So what about you? What have you been up to?" Mrs. Park asked a few minutes after the conversation had lulled into silence.

Jin took a drink of tea before beginning to talk about what she had been up to since she had last seen Mrs. Park. "Well, I haven't done anything near as interesting; I went to college in Arizona working on a degree in design. I met Mr. Lain a couple of months before graduation, and got married. We moved to Angel Grove for a couple of years, although we didn't actually live in town."

"Then, we moved back to Arizona for awhile, until like a few years ago, when my husband was offered a job at the University teaching science. We moved in with my mother in Stone Canyon, until a couple of weeks ago actually. Right now, my husband and I are in the process of moving into our new house. But, other than that, that's about all."

Quickly though, before Mrs. Park could make any further comment on this, Jin turned the conversation around again to a new topic.

"So you said you have a son?"

Mrs. Park nodded, with a small smile. "His name's Adam. I've got some pictures of him with me if you wanna see them." She said as she withdrew a small handful of pictures from her purse.

Jin laughed, "Startin' to carry around baby pictures to show off to people! Remember when our moms did that? Embarrassed the heck out of us!" She commented as she took the photos from Mrs. Park and began to look at them with her.

Mrs. Park smiled as she pointed at one of the photographs. "Ah, now that one there...that was taken on Adam's first birthday, even then he wasn't too fond of being infront of the camera."

"...And that one there...that's Adam and his grandparents, I think he was about three....and this one here, is Adam in the first grade....yeah, I think that's right. I can't remember which class photo this one is..."

"...And this one....that is Adam and his father working on the car together." Mrs. Park stated as she looked at the next photograph in her hands.

" This next one, that's Adam before his first martial arts competition, he was so nervous that day!"

" I think this next photo was taken a couple of competitions later...It's Adam and his two friends, Rocky and Aisha, with the trophy they had won. I think he's about thirteen in this photo."

As the last of the photos was shown, Mrs. Park paused. Since her son's disappearance she couldn't really look at this photo much anymore, without feeling a little sad. It had been taken a couple of years back, a little while before they had moved to Angel Grove.

It was a picture of Adam after a competition that had taken place in Angel Grove. He, Rocky, and Aisha had won the tournament, and were standing there in the picture, all looking very proud and grateful that all their hard work had paid off and that they had come in first place. With them in the picture was the group of friends from Angel Grove that the three of them had made a day or so before the competition.

Mrs. Park had remembered going to that competition. Cheering her son and his friends on. Feeling rather proud when the judges announced that Stone Canyon's team had won. She remembered looking all about the crowd for her son and his friend, so that she could congratulate them.

When she found them, she remembered with a small chuckle, she had embarrassed the heck out of Adam when she had found him and had given him a kiss and a hug, telling him how "proud she was of her sweet little baby boy," right there in front of his friends.

Things had seemed to have been going so well for Adam since that photo was taken, and they had moved to Angel Grove, Mrs. Park thought as she looked at the picture.

He had made some new friends, and had transferred schools with his two best friends... and, if Mrs. Park's memory served her right, he had even met a girl that he liked, even if just for a little while. (Sabrina, Mrs. Park remembered Adam saying her name was, although what had become of Sabrina, Mrs. Park didn't know, all Adam had really said was that Sabrina had really changed since he had met her the day before...and he didn't really want to talk about it.)

...What had happened since then that would have caused Adam to just suddenly run off like he had a couple of days ago?

"Something wrong?" Jin asked as she noticed that her friend's eyes were staring at the picture with a far off look with tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

Mrs. Park brushed away her tears and shook her head. "No...Nothing's wrong. I'm fine." she lied.

Jin looked skeptically at Mrs. Park; she knew that something was wrong with her, despite the fact that she told her that nothing was wrong. Her guess was that not everything was alright with Adam; something had happened, recently, that was really upsetting her friend.

Although she dared not ask, since it looked like she was having a hard enough time trying to keep herself together just looking at a photograph of her kid.

* * *

Jason was driving back home after having dropped Tommy off. Although they had made the decision to go out to the desert tomorrow, he couldn't help but feel that he had probably made a mistake suggesting this.

After all there was his dream, the one where he had been driving through the desert and Tommy had been nearby, and he had seen Tommy get knocked down by some monsters.

It had all occurred in the desert, and close to night fall.

Jason had a bad feeling that, this dream would come into a reality if they went into the desert tomorrow.

Which if that was the case, then he had just pretty much made plans for his friend to walk into what almost seemed like certain death.

But, he thought, the only way that I can really find out is if we go. Maybe the real ending of the dream won't be Tommy's death.

Or at least, if the situation that might arise tomorrow started to turn toward looking like it would result in Tommy's death, then, Jason believed, he may be able to turn the situation around and save Tommy's life.

* * *

Minerva yawned as she took a seat at the little outdoor Cafe in Angel Grove in her disguised form. She had decided to get out of the palace again, and do a little shopping. She wanted to figure out just what type of place her daughter would be ruling.

This seemed rather peaceful, people just sitting about...drinking and chatting with one another.

It was boring. Minerva thought as she looked about. She had seen more interesting behavior from rocks on the moon than she was seeing right now at this cafe. This place only seemed lively whenever there was a monster attack.

She much more preferred to see the citizens of this town running about in fear and panic screaming their lungs out, praying that they wouldn't end up getting killed...and that the Power Rangers would come and save the town once more.

Speaking of the Power Rangers, she thought as she examined the paint on her nails, she should probably tell Sleep-walker that when he should spare the Silver Ranger when he goes to kill the rangers, whenever that would be.

Heaving a sigh, Minerva looked over. At least killing the Silver Ranger would be one of the highlights of the last millennium for her. It wasn't every day that she had been rejected by someone who could fight against her.

All the other men that had rejected her, as far as love goes, were all six feet under, (well some she had tossed into the oceans and volcanoes of the planets that she had conquered, while others had withered away in the dungeons of her palace...and others had been eaten alive by her pets…or vaporized on spot.) and none had provided a decent challenge.

One good fight, Minerva thought, that's something that I want. One good battle from a man who has scorned me, I want a challenge, and it appears that the Silver Ranger might be the person who will provide me with that challenge.

Minerva looked around at the people who were occupying this cafe. A frown crossed her face as she saw a few of the couples kissing. Green sparks flew from her finger tips as a group Putty materialized out of thin air to torment the people that were there.

This was sure to liven things up Minerva thought as she watched the Putty begin to upturn the entire Cafe.

Hell, it even made the place look better! She mused as she looked about at the destruction. Much more comfortable which gave the whole cafe a more cozy atmosphere, in her opinion.

She smirked as she saw a couple of women being surrounded by Putty. Now this should be fun to watch. After all, it wasn't every day that she would get to see a group of Putty actually get to kill. Maybe today would be different since there didn't seem to be a Ranger in sight.

Actually, this attack might set those Rangers' senses off and draw them here, so that maybe once and for all she could take out the Silver Ranger, Minerva thought gleefully as she watched the two women backed against the wall in fright.

"Hey! Get away from me!" One of the women shouted at the Putty that was standing in front of her, as it reached out to take hold of her neck and strangle her.

Minerva chuckled, as she watched the two women struggle. She half hoped that the Putty that was reaching out to strangle one of the women would be successful in its mission. After all it had been awhile since she had seen anything die, especially after having the life strangled out of them.

She just didn't know what it was, maybe it was a call to her own past and the times that she killed, but watching a person's face turn color as a lack of oxygen got to their brain and hearing their breathless gasping, it just made Minerva feel pleased.

"Let them go you witch!"

Minerva turned as she heard this shout. A wide, evil, smirk spread across her lips. Two Rangers had arrived right on time, as expected. Although, she wasn't happy to know that the Silver Ranger was being accompanied by the Yellow Ranger.

At least they were both morphed and ready to fight.

"When there's danger, you'll find a Ranger." She mused aloud as she turned to the Rangers, morphing out of her disguise, and withdrawing a blade from thin air.

"You're just in time rangers, a little over-dressed for there being just a group of Putty and me I'll admit, but the show is about to begin." Minerva teased holding her arm out to her side, as she motioned the Ranger's attention to the two people who were being held captive by the Putty.

"For my first act tonight, I have decided to ask for the help of two volunteers. I shall attempt to end the lives of my volunteers. It is a very dangerous feat. If the trick goes wrong, then it could mean that both my volunteers live."

At this Minerva bust out into a fit of evil laughter. She could just imagine that the two Ranger's eyes were about as wide as the women whom were being restrained's eyes were right now under their helmets.

Aisha frowned beneath her helmet as she looked toward the two people that were being held in the grasp of the Putty.

Minerva smirked as she sensed the Yellow Ranger's concern. She managed to pin-point the concern that the Ranger was feeling for one of the ladies to a certain one. With a snap of her fingers the Putty let the woman go, causing her to drop to her feet.

"She'd be a perfect candidate to die first. Don't you think Yellow Ranger?" Minerva asked she gracefully turned on foot and approached the woman.

Aisha rushed forward. "If you lay one finger on Mrs. Park, Trust me, you'll regret it." She growled brandishing her weapons.

Minerva flung her hand out toward the Yellow Ranger, causing a blast of light green energy to shoot from her finger tips and collide with Aisha's chest. Sending her flying through the air and painfully into a street-lamp some feet away.

With a satisfied grin, Minerva turned toward the woman that she had heard the Yellow Ranger call Mrs. Park. Gracefully she approached her with the blade at her side.

As she raised the blade prepared to drive it into Mrs. Park's back, as she knelt there on the ground, she looked into her eyes, Minerva knew, she wanted to watch see the fear in this woman's eyes.

Before she had a chance to strike, she noticed something lying on the ground beside Mrs. Park. Something that Minerva identified as a photograph.

Looking at the photograph briefly Minerva smirked inwardly. An image of the Rangers, as normal teens was shown in this photo. Obviously, she thought, this woman had some relation to one of them, and from what she could tell from looking at this picture and others that were scattered nearby...She had to have been the mother of the Black Power Ranger.

Good, something that she could use to torture her victim with before she killed her. It was always a good feeling knowing what your victims were thinking about before they would die, At least, in Minerva's opinion it was.

"It's a real shame that your son couldn't be here to see this." She began

Aisha groaned as she slowly got to her feet, using Zack as support to keep herself balanced.

Mrs. Park's eyes began to fill with tears at the mention of her son, as she whispered his name, something that Minerva had been anticipating eagerly. She wanted to put her victim through as much mental anguish as she could, and mentioning the son of this woman would defiantly strike a couple of nerves.

"Now this scene brings back memories. I remember having your son at my mercy like this not but a few days ago. Begging me to not kill him. Crying his eyes out. Hearing the screams of pain that came from his lungs as I tore him apart. Ooh, it was enough to make a person's blood freeze." Minerva stated with a mock-reminiscent voice.

It was a lie of course; the Black Ranger still lived...and was in the desert as they spoke. Beelzalea had insisted that they leave him alone for the time being, since there were other plans that were to be set in motion as far as he was concerned.

But what was a little lie, especially if it caused suffering because none of the people hearing it didn't know it to not be the truth?

A grin came across her face as she watched Mrs. Park's already wide eyes grow wider, and the Yellow Ranger let out a small gasp, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"You know, he begged to see you, among his screams he called out for you. It was like music to my ears...only made sweeter by the abrupt silence that followed not soon after." Minerva laughed as she looked down at Mrs. Park.

"I bet you he's looking up at you from hell, just waiting for some family to come and join him."

Raising her sword once more, she prepared to strike. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't keep him waiting..." She added calmly, with a false sweetness as she made an attempt to slam the sword down.

Of course the sound that she heard when the sword came down was not the sound of metal passing through human flesh, muscle and bone as fountains of blood oozed to the surface, but rather the dull thunk of metal against rock.

A dull pain shot through Minerva's head as it made contact with the concrete ground. Mrs. Park had her pinned down with the weapon out of her hand. She was looking furiously down into Minerva's eyes.

"You....bitch...I'll...make...you...pay...for...what...you...did...to....my...son!!" Mrs. Park shouted dividing up her words with every punch she landed on Minerva's face.

So, this woman wasn't going to accept death, even though she believed her son to be dead? Minerva thought with a slight inward laugh. Good, then her death will be all the more meaningful.

Minerva grabbed Mrs. Park's fist as it came down once more. With a growl she managed to push the Black Ranger's mother off of her, and tackled her to the ground.

Her fist collided with Mrs. Park's face a couple of times, before she started to resort to using her claws.

* * *

While the fight was going on between Mrs. Park and Minerva, Zack had left Aisha over near a pillar to continue to recover from the attack she had suffered earlier, to help the other woman out.

It was almost nothing for him to destroy the Putty.

"You alright?" Zack asked the woman.

"I-I'm fine...but my friend...is she going to be alright?"

"I don't know, ma'am. I just have to admit, right now, she's either being really brave or really stupid...or some combination of both. "

* * *

Minerva was thrown off of Mrs. Park, allowing the both of them to get to their feet. Minerva noticed that Mrs. Park had a gash on her leg, obviously caused from when she had dodged out of the way of the sword.

Ah, that reminded her, she thought as she looked toward the blade that was lying where it had fallen on the ground, she still had her weapon.

Mrs. Park noticed this as well, and leapt for the sword, hoping to get to it before Minerva could reclaim it.

Minerva decided to allow the Black Ranger's mother to obtain the sword, after all, she already had a plan to get the weapon back in her possession and end this battle quickly anyhow. Yet, it was much more fun to allow your enemy to believe they had the upper hand before blasting them away.

Mrs. Park lifted the sword up with a little bit of difficulty, pointing it at Minerva. Her eyes were narrowed angrily, and her breathing was heavy. Minerva was laughing at this scene that was playing out right before her eyes.

"You...killed a sweet and innocent child, who had done nothing to you...and you can still stand there and laugh?" Mrs. Park stated in-between her heavy breathing as she approached Minerva.

Minerva placed her hands on her hips and looked at Mrs. Park smugly. Obviously, she didn't know about her son's alternate identity, from how it sounded. Sweet, innocent, and done nothing to her? Ha! Minerva thought. In her eyes, all the Rangers were far from sweet, and innocent, and their mere existence was an insult to her.

"Why do you insist on even living when you know that your son is dead?" Minerva asked as she looked at Mrs. Park.

Mrs. Park smirked as she cleared some blood from her face briefly, but did not answer Minerva.

At this Minerva took a step forward. She smiled smugly, and then heaved a sigh.

"You want your revenge? Fine. Go ahead. I'm an open target, weaponless, as you can see. It would be so easy for you to just use my weapon, and kill me any way that you please...just ruthlessly slaughter me with the blade that is stained with the blood of your son."

Mrs. Park's hands were shaking terribly as she approached Minerva with the sword in her hands, ready to strike.

"But then, you wouldn't be any better than a cold-hearted monster. Killing an unarmed person...and you'll have accomplished nothing." Minerva stated when Mrs. Park was only three feet away from her.

This caused the reaction that Minerva had expected. Mrs. Park stopped dead in her tracks, realizing that Minerva was right. If she were to kill this evil woman, it wouldn't bring Adam back, and wouldn't have made her any better than Minerva was.

"Now, drop the sword...and I'll consider sparing your life."

Tears began to pour from Mrs. Park's eyes as she threw the sword to the ground with an angry grunt, and proceeded to stand there while her body shook with silent sobbing.

Minerva picked up the sword with a smirk, staring at the distraught woman before her. Yes, she had Mrs. Park right where she wanted her.

"Such a foolish human." She laughed as she stretched out her hand towards Mrs. Park.

A beam of green magical energy shot from Minerva's palm, and travelled toward Mrs. Park.

Aisha and Zack watched the scene in horror. It was almost as if time had slowed down just for this moment, in order to torture them as they watched the beam head toward Mrs. Park, who was staring wide eyed as it came toward her.

They watched, helpless, as she was nailed in the stomach by this beam, the force of it swept Mrs. Park off her feet, carrying her through the air for a few feet, causing her to crash into a few tables, and into the wall, before collapsing to the ground with a loud crash.

Aisha rushed over to Mrs. Park, despite the fact that she still wasn't completely recovered from her own injuries yet.

Mrs. Park was lying unconscious and bleeding, but from what Aisha could tell, she was still alive, and it looked like she would be okay.

"You're real lucky that I spared her life. After all, I could have just easily killed her. But I figured since she was the first earthling outside of you Rangers who has tried to stand up to me, that I should be a little forgiving." Minerva stated darkly as she crossed her arms and looked down at Aisha.

"Besides, she's more likely to drown in grief while she mourns the loss of her son..." Minerva stated with a smirk and a shrug.

From behind her helmet, Aisha gave Minerva one of the nastiest looks that she could bring herself to give.

"Get Mrs. Park and her friend out of here, and go get the others." Zack called out to Aisha as he rushed over to her. "I'll handle Minerva for now."

Aisha nodded as she and Mrs. Park's friend managed, with a slight bit of difficulty to get Mrs. Park to her feet. Aisha teleported the both of them out of the area with her.

"Alright, Minerva it's just you and me." Zack stated as he cracked his knuckles together, and took a deep breath.

Minerva smirked as she twirled her weapon like a baton in her hand, and fell into an attacking position ready to strike the Silver Ranger.

"Don't die on me as quickly as your friend the Black Ranger did. It'd be a disappointment if you perished before I was done torturing you."

With this Minerva let out a sinister laugh, she could just sense the cold terror that had just stabbed the Silver-suited warrior at the mention of his fellow ranger's apparent death.

It was magnificent the way that people seemed to buy the lie that the Black Ranger was dead. It was almost as if every time the false story left her mouth and reached the ears of someone who had known him she could just hear every shred of hope that they had of him being alive shattering to pieces and falling into a endless abyss, only to be replaced with sadness, terror, anger.

She rushed at Zack, with a shout she swung her weapon at him, only for him to dodge it by doing the splits, and countering her attack with a swing of his weapon, that made contact with her waist.

The contact of the blade at the end of the nunchuku and the snake-armor that Minerva wore caused sparks, and only infuriated Minerva as she kicked at the Silver Ranger, sending him backward.

* * *

Aisha stumbled forward as she landed on the floor of the Park family's living room. This was the first place that she could even think to take Mrs. Park and her friend that was safe.

She noticed Mr. Park's startled expression at the Yellow Ranger, and the other two's appearance there in the living room. Of course he was more surprised by the state that his wife was in than he was of the other two.

"Oh my god!!"

Aisha made her way over to the couch, and laid Mrs. Park's unconscious form down. She then looked at Mr. Park, prepared to explain everything to him.

"What---?" He began, but was left speechless at the sight of his wife.

"Sir. Your wife is going to be fine. She's a very lucky woman to still be alive, even if she is unconscious for the time being." Aisha said with a slight sigh as she explained the situation to Adam's father.

Without a further word, Aisha teleported out of there, to go and contact the others.

* * *

Minerva stabbed at one of the upturned tables that the Silver Ranger had ducked behind to avoid a blast of energy that she had shot at him.

"Come out now, my little Silver Owl. You can't stay hidden up in the trees all night. It's time for the snake to eat." She teased with a false sweet-ness in her voice as she withdrew the sharp blade and took another stab at the table.

At this stab, Zack sprang up into the air, pulling out his blade blaster, and slicing at Minerva with the blade of the weapon, before switching it to blaster mode quickly and shooting at Minerva.

"Sorry, Minerva but it looks like you got your food chain messed up. It's the Owl who hunts the Snake." Zack stated as he watched Minerva fall to the ground as the blaster beam hit her.

Zack approached the fallen Minerva, who was lying in a heap of debris; he had his blade blaster pointed at her ready to shoot her down. He had her down for the count and at his mercy.

A rage filled his heart as he looked at Minerva; he wanted to rip her apart, like an owl ripping apart the snake that it had just captured. Causing her as much pain and suffering as he believed she had caused Adam in his final moments.

At the same time though, he felt a little pity for her. She was down, and he could just easily shoot her between the eyes and end her life. She looked so pathetic laying there, taking in deep breaths, as she looked up at him.

"You...you killed one of my friends." He said taking a deep breath, his finger hovering over the trigger of the blaster.

A small smile curved the edges of Minerva's bright red lips, almost as if mocking Zack.

"Knowing this you hesitate to kill." She teased.

Zack took another deep breath, as he tried to calm the anger that was building in him; his eyes were focused on Minerva, so that he hardly noticed the dark green smoke that was starting to rise up behind him.

"Too bad, you should have taken the opportunity." Minerva's voice sounded from behind Zack as he stood there. Hearing her voice behind him but seeing her in front of him disoriented Zack slightly; he had not been expecting Minerva to summon a clone version of herself to attack.

The clone-Minerva slashed at Zack with the clone-version of Minerva's weapon, the attack landed successfully on Zack, sending him to the ground, where Minerva had been seconds before, but had vanished from.

As he tried to get to his feet, he saw Minerva step in to the place of her clone, making in vanish in a cloud of dark green smoke and light as she dismissed her clone.

"Okay, that's enough Minerva!" a voice rang through the air, announcing that the other Rangers had arrived.

Looking over, Zack noticed that everyone was morphed, except for Kimberly and Kat, which was rather unusual.

Kat hadn't bothered to morph prior to this, since she still wasn't feeling well, which had caused her to think rather illogically and had made her forget to morph before teleporting in.

As she pulled her morpher out of her bag, at the same time that Kimberly pulled her mopher out, a wave of dizzy-ness fell over both of them, something that they both ignored, as they called out their respective colors.

However, something was wrong, Trini and Billy could immediately tell. When both the girls had called out their Ranger colors nothing had happened. They watched as Kat clutched her chest and stumbled forward, at the same time so did Kimberly.

"My morpher it's not responding to me!" Kat stated in shock as she tried to recover from her dizziness spell.

"Mine isn't either!" Kimberly stated as she got to her feet, and tried to morph once more but to no avail.

Minerva laughed, it looked to her like the Pink and Green Rangers were having a pretty unlucky day, running into a battle with their morphers pretty much broken!

Billy rushed over to the two of them, and took up their morphers, after a few seconds of examining the morphers, before handing them back and pressing the button on his communicator.

"Alpha, something is wrong with Kat and Kimberly, their morphers aren't responding to them...even though there seems to be nothing wrong with the morphers."

In a matter of second's Alpha's voice came from the communicator.

"I read you Billy. I'm not sure what the problem could be, just by what you are telling me. Kat and Kimberly will have to leave the battle and come to the command center, so that we can immediately diagnose the problem and find a solution to it."

Billy helped Kat to her feet and helped keep her balanced.

"What about you guys? Won't you need our help?" Kat asked curiously, as she looked up at Billy.

Jason glanced over at her and answered for Billy, "We can handle Minerva by ourselves, besides its too dangerous for you guys to be around here unmorphed."

Partially satisfied with that response to her question, (she would have been completely happy with the response to the question if she didn't have doubt in her mind that things were going to be okay for those who she and Kimberly would be leaving behind in the battle, Kat teleported to the command center with Kimberly.

Minerva watched the scene with a smirk on her face. The Rangers only thought that they were down by two Rangers; it appeared that they still hadn't figured out that really they were down by three rangers in this battle, and they had been missing that one ranger for the last few days.

* * *

"Well, I would _love _to stay and here and fight with you Rangers, but you know what? I forgot that I had promised my darling daughter that I would be joining her and her husband for dinner tonight...so I'd better be leaving!" Minerva began with a laugh.

She turned and looked around the room, there had to be something that she could turn into a monster to fight the Rangers.

As her eyes fell on a half empty shake in a plastic cup that was lying among the debris of the Cafe, she snapped her fingers together. Green sparks appeared in the air and surrounded the object, as its shape began to change and grow into that of a monster.

"But...here's a little parting gift to remember me by." She stated as she vanished in a cloud of green smoke. "I hope you and Sugar-fang get along well."

Zack took a few steps forward as he made an attempt to catch Minerva, to keep her from fleeing the scene, so that they could maybe once and for all finish their battle.

Tommy put his hand on Zack's shoulder. "Let her go Zack, there's nothing we can do about her for now. We've got bigger problems." He said.

Turning and giving a nod to the White Ranger, Zack agreed. Tommy was right after all, they did have a more immediate problem right then as it was.

Sugar Fang rushed at them, swinging its weapon, a large metal pole that resembled a straw, at them.

Leaping into the air, Trini did a front flip, and sliced at Sugar Fang, before being knocked back by a blast of sticky liquid from the cannon-like arm of the monster.

As she got to her feet, recovering from the attack she wiped the liquid off of her Ranger suit in disgust.

"Hey! Do you realize how hard it is to get slime off of these suits?! Great. Now I'm all sticky and gross. Thanks a lot." She stated as she brushed some of the slime off of her suit.

Sugar Fang laughed menacingly at the Rangers, as it rushed at them.

Billy hurled his lance at Sugar Fang, causing a mild explosion as the lance made contact with the monster, before returning to Billy like a boomerang.

Tommy dodged out of the way of the monster's flailing arms. With Billy's last attack the monster had become enraged enough that it had resorted to destroying anything and everything that happened to come into its path.

With the way that the monster fought, it was obvious to the rangers that it had been created at last minute with no actual thought placed into it

Sleep-walker smirked from behind the Red Ranger helmet. This monster could easily be beaten, by a combined attack from at least two of the Rangers... Minerva obviously wasn't intending for this monster to be a challenge. Rather, it was seemed if it was supposed to be a distraction so that she could get away from them.

He could kill the Rangers right now, while they were distracted by this weakling of a monster.

However, it would be against the orders that Zedd had given him, which was to refrain from taking the opportunity of killing the Rangers, until the White and Gold Ranger were gone tomorrow, and he was pretty sure that if he attacked now, the White and Gold Ranger were sure to ruin his attempts.

Besides, he already had another plan on how he wanted to kill the others, and killing them now while they were distracted by a monster...just wouldn't be any fun.

Although the monster was a rather simple monster, it managed to gain the upper hand in the battle, and had most of the rangers down, since they had yet to learn that it could be taken out in a combined attack.

"Maybe I was wrong in saying that we would be able to take on Minerva and her power without Kat and Kimberly..." Jason stated as he got to his feet, recovering from being tossed into the air and into a wall, by the monster.

The monster slowly approached the rangers with its weapon held high ready to strike the Rangers once more.

Pink and green laser blasts collided with the monster, causing a large explosion which obliterated the monster.

As the Rangers got to their feet, they peered through the smoke from the explosion to see exactly who had destroyed the monster.

* * *

"Kimberly?" Jason asked curiously as the smoke cleared just enough for him to see the shape of the green-suited Ranger, although he couldn't be for sure if his eyes were deceiving him.

"Kat?" Tommy asked as he saw the shape of the Pink Ranger.

It was a bit of a surprise to the Rangers to see the Pink and Green Rangers standing there, obviously the trouble that both Kimberly and Kat had been having with their morphers earlier in the battle had been resolved.

"Looks like you guys needed some help..."

"Although, that monster was a little too easy. Makes me think that you guys were just waiting for us to show up!"

Trini stretched as she approached the Green and Pink Rangers, "Thanks a ton!" She said cheerfully.

"So, it looks like Alpha found out what was wrong? What was the problem?" Billy asked as he approached the two Rangers.

Kat and Kimberly took off their helmets, seeing that no one else was around, so it was safe to do so.

"Well, it appeared that the reason that I was feeling dizzy every time that I went near my morpher, was because my Ninja animal spirit wasn't recognizing me. It was recognizing Kimberly...since it originally belonged to her, and was acting as if I were some sort of intruder trying to steal the coin." Kat stated as she rested the Green helmet that she now sported, on her hip.

Kimberly took off the helmet that formerly belonged to her and fixed her hair. "So, when we went to the Command Center and Zordon figured this out, the only way for it to be fixed was for me to reclaim my former Powers, and for Kat to take the powers of the Green Power Coin."

"Zordon had been planning on doing this for while now, since he had a feeling that Kimberly was going to come back, although, after yesterday's incident...he had to resort to giving her the Green Power Coin temporarily, but had pretty much forgotten about having to switch our powers out..."

Jason crossed his arms, while it was good to know that the whole problem that Kimberly and Kat had been having with their powers was simply solved by a Power Transfer, he knew it wasn't exactly like Zordon, who appeared to foresee a lot of things, to simply forget about having to switch out powers.

All of the Rangers de-morphed and began to leave the area, continuing to talk as they left.

"He seemed really distracted though, like something was troubling him, but he wouldn't say. Plus, with the trouble that you guys were in, we didn't really have time to ask." Kat continued crossing her arms.

Aisha and Jason both casted a brief glance to Rocky who was standing there with a solemn look on his face, although they could tell that deep in his eyes, that the monster that was controlling him was beginning to wonder if Zordon was on to him. They were beginning to wonder the same thing as well.

"If Zordon's troubled...I bet it has to do with Adam's death." Zack stated bitterly as the group continued down the street as they heard the police sirens start to sound as the police arrived on the scene, for damage control.

With this statement, almost all eyes turned to Zack. They couldn't believe what they were hearing from their friend. Was what he was saying true? Could Adam really be dead?

Zack and Aisha nodded in response to their friend's unspoken questions.

"We didn't have to worry about Beelzalea getting to Adam out in the desert. Minerva told us that she found him...and killed him. She admited killing him, right there infront of his mother, laughing the entire time." Zack stated clenching his fist.

Tommy put his hand on Zack's shoulder. "Maybe she was just saying that..." He said trying to sound reassuring to his clearly upset friend.

Aisha crossed her arms and looked down as she slowly walked, "I doubt that Minerva would put so much detail and effort into a lie...and she's evil...so why would she lie about killing someone? Especially to their mother?"

Tommy bit his lip, while Aisha was right about that, something in him told him that Minerva had just been lying to hurt them all, and that their fellow Black Ranger wasn't dead.

Aisha stopped suddenly as she remembered about the whole incident from earlier, quickly she looked around at the others.

"Guys....you think that we could possibly stop by Adam's house? I just wanna make sure that his mom is alright."

The other Rangers nodded in agreement as they all set out to their, presumably deceased, friend's house.

* * *

(_**Author's note:**__ Sorry that this chapter took so long…and that it wasn't exactly great…I wasn't exactly sure how to go about doing this chapter, and that's why it's rather disconnected and doesn't seem to have much of a point. Anyhow, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!_ )


	8. Into the Heart of Nightmares

Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers

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* * *

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**Chapter Eight: Into the Heart of Nightmares.**

As the Rangers entered the house, some of them couldn't help but feel a little heavy-hearted.

In their beliefs, Adam was dead, and so the house they now stood in, only brought to them memories of the friend who had once lived under its roof.

The memories weren't bad, it was just that the shock of their friend's death had yet to wear off and just standing in a place where he lived, knowing that he wasn't to return to this place that really upset them.

Almost immediately when they were let into the house by Mr. Park, they found Mrs. Park sitting on the couch, the wounds she had received earlier had been bandaged up.

Her face was very pale, and her eyes were very watery. It was obvious that she was trying to hide the fact that she was seriously upset by the news of her son's "death."

Aisha walked over and sat down next to her, trying to comfort her, without giving away to her that she knew exactly why she was so upset.

"She's been like this since she was brought here...by the Yellow Ranger." Mr. Park explained to the teens, when they asked about the situation.

"...We were at the Cafe, when these horrible monsters in grey appeared and started tearing the place up, and then this snake-like witch showed up...and I dunno, she just lost it when that witch mentioned something about killing her son..." Jin explained to the teens, to help them better understand the situation; although, little did she know she didn't have to explain the situation to them.

The other Rangers, casted skeptical looks to Aisha and Zack, almost unable to believe that Mrs. Park had actually gotten into a fight with Minerva, even though the bandaged wounds were proof enough that this story was true.

Mr. Park crossed his arms as he looked out the window in the living room, focusing on one spot outside, before heaving a sigh that carried serious tones of depression.

The teens already knew the next words he was about to say, before the words had even been said. The look on Mr. Park's face told them that he already knew that his son was dead, and that he was about to break the news to them.

"I'm afraid I've got some bad news....Adam is dead."

The group pretended to be shocked about the news...even though they already knew...and had known long enough for depression to set in.

Mr. Park shook his head and turned toward the others, before calmly setting down on the couch next to his wife, gently putting his hand on her bandaged hand, before looking towards his son's friends.

'We've deciding to wait a few days before we even make funeral arrangements for Adam. That way, we've both had a little time to recover..." He stated quietly.

Jason looked to the others, nodding in agreement that that would be the best thing for Adam's parents to do.

Mr. Park looked up at Jin, a little bit surprised. With all the shock that he had received in the last few hours, his wife showing up injured, and learning of his son's death, that he had completely forgotten that she had been there.

"Jin, I'm sorry. With these current situations, it seems I've forgotten my manners. Could I get you something to drink?" He stated, with a half-hearted laugh trying to break the depression and tension that now hung in the air.

With a smile Jin shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm not really that thirsty. Plus, I'd really hate to be a burden to the both of you, especially with the recent loss of your son."

Mr. Park put his hand on his wife's shoulder and looked at her briefly before standing up and giving Jin another brief smile, to signal to her that she wasn't being a burden to them, in fact they both appreciated having company.

* * *

The light of the fire gave the darkening desert area a warm glow. The smell of food being cooked hung lightly in the air, as they trio sat around the fire that evening.

Adam could just make out the hazy shape of the cliffs that surrounded the command center in the distance in the darkening sky. It would only be a matter of time before they would be back at the Command Center.

When he got back and reunited with the others, he knew the first thing he would have to do is apologize, especially to Rocky and Aisha, for the way that he had left pretty much without a word. He was sure that the others were probably getting a little worried.

Adam was a little uneasy about the prospect of returning tomorrow. He was kind of worried that the others wouldn't be so forgiving about this whole incident.

Plus there was the fact that sooner or later, he'd have to return home, and he thought that facing his friends after having left without a word would be difficult, but facing his mother...who he was pretty sure by now had worried herself so much about him, that the house would be smelling heavily of Peppermint...and would probably be smelling like that for the next twenty years....that would be a different story.

Looking over Adam noticed that the girl was looking rather uneasy about something. She had some concern on her mind, but it was completely obvious, in the way that she was just staring at the fire, looking intently at the food that she was holding over the fire with a stick.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

The girl looked up and bit her lip for a couple of seconds deciding on whether or not to tell Adam what was on her mind at the moment.

She was certain that if she told Adam what the problem was, he would probably think that it was a stupid concern, since he probably never had to deal with the concerns she had before.

Shaking her head, she made an attempt to drop the subject, since she really didn't feel like risking embarrassment, and having Adam laugh at her rather petty concerns.

Adam smirked as he glanced over at Ceres, almost as if to ask if she knew what the problem was.

"_She's worried about your friends. She's afraid that they won't really like her, and won't see her as part of the team..." _Ceres explained to him.

The girl looked toward Ceres, with a bit of a glare. Although since her face had become so pink out of embarrassment of having Ceres tell Adam what was on her mind.

Adam let out a laugh, that's what she was worried about?

Looking over, once he had finished laughing, Adam realized that he probably shouldn't have done that, since he seemed to have given the girl the impression that he was laughing at the fact that he found her concern to be pathetic, when that wasn't the reason that he was laughing at all.

"Hey, don't worry about it. When the others meet you, you'll make friends with them fast, especially with Aisha and Kat." Adam stated with a warm smile, trying to be reassuring, to help the girl not be so worried.

Although he was trying to be reassuring to her, he could tell it wasn't doing much good. She was still rather worried about what the others would think of her.

"I know how you feel though. When I first made friends with Rocky and Aisha, I was a little worried about them accepting me as a friend. Of course, I was about five or six...and had really low self-confidence...and was almost ridiculously shy...and hadn't really had any friends before."

"...and then when I was chosen to be a Power Ranger, I found myself worrying the same thing, But, after being a Ranger for awhile, I started to realize that I was worrying over nothing. I came to find that they were really great friends."

The girl looked up at him curiously, was he serious...he had actually had the same worries that she had, especially about making friends?

Adam nodded, almost as if making it seem like he could read her mind, even though her curiosity about what he was saying was clearly written on her face.

With a smile, the girl handed him some of the food that she had been cooking over the fire, before speaking.

"Tell me about your friends...about the...Power Rangers. Please?" She asked slowly, but with a tone in her voice that made her sound like a little kid, asking an adult to tell them a story.

Adam laughed briefly at the scene as he before he began to tell her about his friends, the people who in her future, depending on if she did decided to accept the Ranger Powers (that was once Ceres reunited with the Power-coin, recharging its power.), would be her fellow Rangers.

* * *

"The White Ranger and the Gold Ranger should be leaving at 9:00 in the morning, tomorrow." Sleepwalker stated to himself as he sat in Rocky's room, with only the dim light of the desk-lap providing any light in the dark room.

The shadows that were casted upon Sleep-walker's face gave him a more sinister appearance than he had ever had before.

As Sleep-walker looked toward the alarm clock beside Rocky's bed, he calculated just how much longer it would be until 9:00 a.m. so that he would know how many hours he had left to perfect his master plan of how to go about killing the Rangers.

"Hmph. I have thirteen hours...That should be just enough time." He muttered with a smirk, turning away from the clock and looking at the photo of the Rangers that was sitting on Rocky's desk.

Obviously, Sleep-walker thought, Zordon was on to him...or at least by the time his plan started, Zordon would become aware. He would probably alert the Rangers of the threat, which would allow them to quickly over-come their fear, and keep them from hesitating to attack him, if not that it would allow them to get away from him.

There had to be some way for him to get Zordon out of the way, or at least keeping the Rangers out of communication with the Command Center, and the Command Center out of touch with the Rangers.

Sleep-walker tapped his fingers against the desk for several minutes before his eyes fell on the communicator that was around his wrist.

He had forgotten all about this device. Apparently from what he had come to find out that this device was the link of communication between the Command Center and the Rangers. With a simple touch, the Rangers could contact Zordon and teleport to the command Center.

Maybe if he adjusted the device he could use it as a remote device to block the signal from the Command Center, inevitably closing off contact with Zordon. The Rangers would walk right into danger, with no way of knowing that they were doing so, and no way to escape.

Now, if he recalled right, from some of Rocky's memories that he had been browsing through a few days ago, so that he could learn how to act more like Rocky did around his friends. The Blue Ranger should still have the pieces of a device that he had built that had cut off the power of the Command Center.

Sleep-walker smirked, if there had been one thing that Rita and Zedd's past failed plans, like the plan with the Hate-Master, which usually proved useful.

Like the device that Billy had built. Sleep-walker was sure that the Blue Ranger had kept the parts for the device, since he was sure that Billy was the kind of person who would hate to just throw out something that could be reconfigured and used later.

Now, all he had to do would be to sneak into the Blue Ranger's lab, and steal the components of the device, and perhaps a few more materials, and begin to modify the communicator.

Lucky for him, the Blue Ranger wouldn't be home for awhile. Billy, Zack, Trini, and Aisha. Kimberly and Kat, and Jason were at the Command Center right then anyhow, Zordon had called them there for reasons that Zordon had not explained to them over their communicators...but Sleep-walker was sure that whatever they had been called to the Command Center for it would take them awhile, to return.

"It's not going to work, Sleep-walker. They'll figure that something is up; when they find out that someone jammed the signal. They'll figure that something was wrong, since when we didn't stay with them....and we're the only other people who even have an idea about how to contact the command center." Rocky stated in Sleep-walker's head, causing sleep-walker to turn towards him and smirk darkly, at the injured teenager, before deciding to disregard his comment. Seeing that he wasn't even worth the effort to speak to.

Rocky knew that the plan would blow Sleep-walker's cover for one reason. Rocky was one of the most technologically inept Rangers on the team. Each Ranger had a certain attribute about them that they brought to the team, and that skill set them apart from the other Rangers, making them unique.

Billy was the inventor on the team, not him. Rocky knew that he was more of the person who made jokes and tried to keep things light and add a bit of humor when things started getting a little too dark and depressing. It was just his job to be the clown, and Rocky wasn't afraid to admit it.

Formerly that role had belonged to Zack, back when he had been the Black Ranger. Of course when he had left, Rocky's natural fun-loving personality and his light-heartedness made him a perfect candidate to fill Zack's role as the clown of the group.

But since Zack had returned to the team....where exactly did that leave him, he wondered.

Where exactly does that leave you now that Zack has returned to the team? Rocky asked himself as he looked at the darkness out of the corner of his eye. Hm. Let's think about that...that would leave you being restrained by vines that could kill you...sitting by almost helplessly, while Sleep-walker makes plans to basically slaughter all of your friends and fellow Rangers who don't even know you're in trouble, while you have a voice in your head reading you stories like you are some sort of little kid....talk about feeling like being on the brink of insanity.

He could hear the voice give a brief laugh in his head; at least he had managed to amuse someone with his sarcasm.

Although hearing this laughter, did not make him feel any better, especially when knowing that most of his friend's only had less than thirteen hours left before they would be joining Adam in death. Thirteen hours was not a lot of time, especially when several of those would be spent sleeping.

Rocky's eyes narrowed upon Sleep-walker. The way that he saw it, the Rangers had thirteen hours to finally figure out that he was in trouble and find some way to help, him. Or he had thirteen hours to figure out how to get out of here and stop Sleep-walker once and for all.

...What am I gonna do? Rocky sighed as he looked at the vines that were restraining him. He couldn't exactly break out of the vines without killing himself. If only there was some way to gain control of himself, like he had before with the whole incident with Kimberly.

Of course, he was sure that would be impossible. He didn't believe that he even had the strength left in him to even attempt to do that again. He's probably gain control of himself, and then just collapse to the ground, too weak to stand...which would just give Sleep-walker the opportunity to kill him, before proceeding to kill the other Rangers.

* * *

"Jason, Trini, Zack, as individuals who have previous Ranger experience, you know that times will come when your individual fighting skill as Rangers will not be enough to take down your opponent." Zordon began as he looked down at the Rangers that were lined up side by side in front of him.

Each Ranger nodded in turn, they knew exactly what Zordon was talking about. He was talking about the Zords, the assault vehicles that the team could summon at times when the battle escalated out of their control, (usually that meant that Rita and Zedd had used their magic and such to make the monster grow.)

"For now, Rita and Zedd have kept the battles from escalating to where it would be necessary to call up on the Zords, but I fear that they will not keep this up for very long. The time has come for you to receive your new Zords." Zordon began.

As he finished the sentence the viewing globe lit up, catching all the Ranger's attention and prompting them to turn toward it.

The first image shown was of bird like Zord, much like the Falcon Zord, only Golden in color, where the Falcon was white. The Zord was shown flying through the sky.

"Jason, with the Powers of the Golden Hawk...you will control the Hawk Ninja Zord. When needed the Hawk Ninja Zord can combine with the Ninja MegaZord...and even the Shogun Mega

Zord, acting as a replacement part for the Falcon Zord."

As the image changed, it became an image of the Tiger Zord. This Zord was shown prowling through a giant, almost ancient looking jungle, before letting out a mighty roar.

"Trini, this is your Zord, the Mighty Ninja Tiger Zord. If for any reason the Ape or the Wolf Zord are unable to be summoned into battle, The Tiger Zord can take their place on the Ninja Mega Zord. With the Shogun Megazord, the Tiger Zord can be utilized as a powerful cannon."

Once more the Image changed, showing this time an Owl Zord, swooping down low to the ground on a moonlit night.

"This, Zack, is your Zord. The Owl Ninja Zord. Like the Hawk and Tiger Zords it can act as a replacement to one of the Zords on the Ninja Mega Zord. If for any reason the Crane Ninja Zord cannot come into battle, then the Owl Ninja Zord can come into its place. As a part of the Shogun Megazord, the Owl Zord can be used as an additional set of wings."

Looking up at Zordon, the three teenagers bowed respectfully to him, showing that they really appreciated the new Zords, and were looking forward to using them in battle.

"The new Zords, are great...and all, but what about the Green Ranger power? Shouldn't there be a Zord too, or is Kat going to be using the Dragon Zord?" Billy asked curiously as he looked up at Zordon.

"Adjustments have been made to Tor, the Carrier Zord. Katherine, when needed, you shall call upon Tor to assist in battle. If for any reason, the Bear Zord cannot come into battle, then Tor can replace it in the formation of the Ninja MegaZord. Other than this, Tor will still serve its purpose of providing protection...and transportation." Zordon stated looking down at Katherine

"By using the Dragon-Flute, you will be able to call upon the Dragonzord, allowing you to control it at the same time that you control Tor." Alpha added.

Katherine nodded, before casting a glance to the others, with a brief smile, showing that she was happy that she would able to help out, and checking to make sure the others were okay with the idea that technically she would be controlling two Zords.

Of course, by the looks that the others were giving her, they didn't seem to mind. After all it appeared that they all had some knowledge of Tor's capabilities...and knew that she would probably be needing a Zord to make up for what Tor lacked in actual fighting capabilities.

* * *

The Desert sands sparkled under the moonlight, causing it to look like a painting. The entire area was silent except for the croaking of frogs, the howl of the wolf, the chirping of crickets, and the gentle roar of the wind.

Aisha stood at the edge of the cliff next to the command Center, looking out over the desert silently.

"C'mon back inside Aisha. It's too cold out here." Zack stated as he came up behind Aisha and put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly.

Turning and facing Zack for a brief moment before she looked back out over the desert she frowned. Showing him that she didn't exactly want to go back inside the Command Center, not just then at least.

Zack looked out at the desert, deciding to join her for a little while.

"Thinkin' about Adam?" He asked after several seconds of silence.

With a small sigh, Aisha nodded and crossed her arms. Zack gave a brief frown as he crossed his arms.

"Me too."

"...I just can't believe he's dead."

Zack frowned and turned away from Aisha. Just the mention of Adam's death started to make Zack feel anger towards Minerva.

From what he had heard from Minerva, she had just killed him, it didn't even sound like Adam had actually put up much of a fight. Which Zack knew wasn't like Adam, or any Ranger for that matter.

It had to have been an unfair fight. Minerva probably snuck up on him, with an army of Tengu and Putty, and a couple of monsters (that was if she didn't turn a couple of the plants or rocks in the desert into monsters.) and cornered him.

Zack hated to even imagine how the battle had gone.

"I dunno if I should actually believe Minerva. I mean, you know, Minerva...Beelzalea, Rita, Zedd, they're evil and so they would likely say things that they know would hurt us, like making the claim that Adam is dead...So I start thinking, hey maybe Adam is still out there..." Aisha began shaking her head.

"But....then part of me stops and thinks, 'hey, they're evil...why would they lie about killing?' you know. And if that's true, then Adam really is dead...and when I start thinking thoughts like that...I'm not sure what to believe." Aisha continued as she looked at Zack.

Zack looked up at the moon. He knew how she felt; a lot of the Rangers probably knew how she felt in this current situation. They had never actually had to deal with a death of a friend and fellow ranger before, so a lot of them were probably having mixed feelings about it...refusing to accept Adam's death as a reality, but then again...slowly starting to come to terms with it at the same time.

Putting his hand on her shoulder once more, and giving it a gentle pat, Zack signaled to Aisha that he knew what she was going through, and that if she ever needed anyone to talk to about this, he'd be there.

"There's nothing that we can do about it right now, Aish. For now, let's just go back inside the command center. Don't wanna have to explain to Adam that we ended up joining him because we caught pneumonia." Zack joked as he led Aisha back into the Command Center.

As she headed back into the Command Center, Aisha gave one last look out to the desert. She couldn't be sure, but she could have swore, that far off in the distance she could see the faint glimmer of light on the horizon of a camp fire.

* * *

Zedd watched Beelzalea from the crack in the door to her room in the servant's quarters. She was laying there on the straw-mattress bed looking up at the ceiling. Her eyes were still the vibrant red they had been for the last few days.

Inwardly Zedd smirked. Tonight would be the last time that Beelzalea would be able to even act superior to him. By this time tomorrow, Sleep-walker will have carried out the orders that Zedd had given him...and the Rangers would be destroyed.

After this, Beelzalea will have served her whole purpose for having been brought to the Castle. If Zedd was able to, he believed that perhaps Minerva would note Beelzalea's failure at having destroyed the Rangers, and would either destroy the Magi herself...or fire her from her service.

If Beelzalea wasn't destroyed by Minerva then maybe, Zedd thought with a dark inward laugh, and then maybe he would get to destroy her.

He hoped he would get to destroy her. He knew that even if the plan succeeded tomorrow, he was still in danger. Beelzalea still had a plan to get rid of him and he knew it.

As he turned away from Beelzalea's room, he gave one last look into the room at the Magi, as she rolled over to look at the wall.

_You may think you are the being with superior power for now Beelzalea, but not for long. By tomorrow, you will have no choice but to bow to me, Lord Zedd, and acknowledge my power, as supreme ruler of the universe!_

* * *

Two O'clock, Jason thought as he looked at the digital numbers on the alarm clock beside his bed that glowed brightly through the darkness of the room. He should have been asleep a long time ago.

Tomorrow he and Tommy had made plans to go out into the desert to go look for arrow-heads...and partially they had made the agreement that they would also go out looking for anything remains of Adam that they could find.

Jason just couldn't help but feel terribly uneasy about this whole thing tomorrow.

He had a really bad feeling that tomorrow was going to be bad news. Tomorrow, him and Tommy would be rushing into a storm of monsters that would undoubtedly kill Tommy, or at least that's what Jason believed would happen, according to his dream.

...Plus on top of that he had the really bad feeling about leaving the other Rangers alone, especially with that demon that was possessing Rocky still on the loose.

Jason just had a terrible, sinking feeling in his gut, that not too long after he and Tommy would leave tomorrow that "Rocky" would attack, and when he did...Jason could just tell by the uneasiness he was feeling that he might not be seeing the others again.

All the uneasiness he was feeling, had been keeping Jason awake for the last few hours. There wasn't anything that he could really do about any of this.

He couldn't exactly call up Tommy right then and cancel, He was pretty sure that both Tommy and his parents wouldn't be so happy about him calling up at this hour...and even tomorrow, he'd hate to just cancel on Tommy last minute like that.

Then on top of that, having to explain to Tommy why he canceled would be difficult. Tommy didn't exactly believe him about the whole situation with Rocky. Jason severely doubted that explaining it all to Tommy again would make things any different than the last time he had tried to tell him.

Jason took a deep breath as he looked up at the darkened ceiling. He knew that he really shouldn't have been feeling so worried. If things got too bad, especially with the situation with "Rocky" then he was sure that Zordon would contact him and Tommy and call them back to the aid of the others.

Even though Jason knew this, it wasn't putting his mind at any sort of ease. In fact that just kept giving him more worry. What if Zordon wasn't able to contact them? What if they got there too late?

Getting up out of bed, Jason decided to abandon his attempts to sleep for then. He knew he'd probably be paying for it later, but right now, he just didn't care. He couldn't find any peace in his thoughts to allow him to drift off into a sleep.

As he got up, and walked out to the garage, he found his dad was working out at the punching bag that hung in the corner.

"Oh, hey sport, what're you doing up at this hour?" Mr. Scott asked as he stopped his work out.

Jason crossed his arms and leaned against the door-frame. "Couldn't Sleep." He admitted as he looked over at the radio that was lightly playing 80s rock music.

Mr. Scott smirked at his son as he tossed a pair of boxing gloves at him. "Well, as long as you're awake how about a little sparring? Nothing like a good sparring match to help you get your mind off of things, and fall asleep better. You can tell your old man all about what's on your mind."

Jason smiled slightly as he slipped the gloves on, and began sparring against his father.

"I doubt you'd really understand it." He said as he dodged out of the way of his dad's punch.

Mr. Scott ducked out of the way of his son's counter attack, "Try me."

Jason sighed as he continued to spar against his dad, beginning to tell him about what was on his mind, just leaving out any mentions of ranger business.

"Well, you know Rocky?"

"Yeah, think so. He's one of those kids you met before going to that peace conference right? One of those kids who won that Ninja competition. I think he's Hispanic, that's him right?" Mr. Scott asked.

Jason nodded before throwing a punch at his dad, and blocking a punch from his dad.

"Well, for the last few days, Rocky has been really different. I mean, he's not acting like himself..."

Mr. Scott stopped sparring against his son and just stood there listening to him.

"I've just got a bad feeling that he's gonna end up seriously hurting a couple of friends soon, and I want to keep him from hurting them, but I don't know if I can." Jason started, realizing quickly after he had said what he did, that it sounded terribly wrong.

Jason's father was silent for several minutes, after Jason had gone quiet. This did sound like a troubling problem.

"Well, Jase, sport, you're right, there really isn't anything you can do as far as helping him. I know that Rocky is a good kid at heart, and he'll stop himself before he causes harm to anyone."

"You think so dad?" Jason asked. He wanted to believe his father, that maybe Rocky would be able to figure out how to stop that monster that had taken control over him before it killed the other rangers, but then again, he just wasn't sure.

With a slight smile, Jason's father gave his son a playful slap on the shoulder, "Rocky is bound to come to his senses when he realizes just how lucky he is to have the friend's he does. You know, one's who would be up at 2:30 in the morning worrying about them."

Jason gave a small smile to his dad as he looked at him. "Well, let's hope so."

"Trust me, sport, I can almost guarantee you that he will."

"Now, how about we get back to sparring?"

* * *

Minerva took a drink of wine as she looked at Earth from the balcony.

"Beelzalea went to bed rather early tonight; rather odd behavior for her isn't it?" Zedd asked, joining her out on the balcony.

Minerva looked down at Earth with a passive look, "I suppose she's not feeling so well. She often gets a little ill when she's away from home for awhile."

With a laugh, Minerva took another drink of wine.

Turning away from the view of the Earth, to look back in to the Palace. "I suppose I should have Finster go and check on her."

With a snap of her fingers, the sound of a bell rang through the air, calling Finster into the room.

"Yes, my Queen Minerva? Is there something that I can do for you?" Finster asked as he bowed politely to Minerva and Zedd.

Minerva crossed her arms and looked down into the wine that was left in the glass in her hand.

"Beelzalea seems to be a little ill. Could you go check on her, take her a little medicine. We don't exactly want her illness getting too serious."

Finster bowed once more as he left the room to go and carry out the orders that Minerva had just given to him.

Looking over at Zedd, Minerva smirked before looking back out over Earth again.

"See? She should be back to her Evil self in no time." She stated taking another sip of wine, and looking at Earth distantly.

Zedd glanced over at Minerva with a dark smirk behind his stare. "You don't suppose this illness could be caused by a weakness...towards a certain human Ranger do you?"

Minerva laughed at what Zedd had just told her, as if she found every word that had come out of his mouth to be ridiculous.

"I doubt Beelzalea's illness is caused by a 'weakness' as you call it towards one of the rangers."

"Beelzalea gets ill sometimes, especially when she's away from the castle. The poor dear hardly leaves her study back home..." Minerva stated offhandedly.

"I don't think she's ever really heard of the term 'vacation'...I mean with all she does around the castle, she hardly ever takes a break for more than five minutes. She's always scurrying around the palace rushing from one thing to the next."

Minerva sighed with a smile as she once more looked down into the remaining wine in her glass. "...She must have just gotten ill over the mere fact that she was brought here with only one task to focus on, she just wasn't used to the idea."

Quickly Minerva looked up and flashed a smile at her son-in-law. "Plus, Beelzalea knows that if I ever see her having such weak-emotions...I'll kill her without hesitation."

* * *

Finster gently knocked on the door to Beelzalea's room in the servant quarters of the Castle, carefully balancing a small tray in his other hand as he did so.

Although, Finster was a servant to Rita, he didn't actually live here with the other servants. In fact, he, Goldar, and the others had their own rooms in this Castle. These rooms were usually for the lesser-ranking servants.

The servant's quarters were a cramped group of rooms, which had been dug out from the caves below the palace. Small candles lit the hallway, providing only meager light to the dark-grey stone hallway.

Each room had been fitted with a heavy wooden and metal door, usually to prevent some of the less trust-worthy servants from escaping.

Not soon after he had knocked, Finster could hear Beelzalea behind the door. With his exceptional hearing, he managed to catch the lightly whispered phrase from Beelzalea's mouth, _"I must go....I'll be back soon Rocky_."

This whisper was followed up by Beelzalea raising her voice to address whoever it was on the other side of the door.

"Yes? Come in."

The door to the room slid open rather gracefully, despite its appearances. Finster stepped into the small cramped, dimly lit room carrying the tray. As he entered the room, he found Beelzalea sitting on the edge of her bed looking at the door.

"Ah, Finster. Is there something troubling you at this hour?" she asked, her eyes turning from a solid white to a powder-blue.

"Queen Minerva believes you are ill. She wanted me to come and check on you, as well to bring you some medicine to help you overcome your illness." Finster said as he laid the tray down on the table beside Beelzalea's bed.

With a sigh Beelzalea got up off her bed and walked toward the wall nearby. A small smile was on her face.

Finster adjusted the glasses upon his nose.

"Beelzalea, you know you will have to take this medicine sooner or later..."

With a grimace on her face Beelzalea turned toward Finster. "I don't want to take that stuff. It taste horrible..." She stated, with a slightly child-like tone to her voice.

"Now, Beelzalea, you're over 20,000 years old. I highly think it's time for you to grow up, and be a little more concerned about your health." Finster stated looking at the younger Magi sternly.

"I take great concern in my own health, and the last time I remembered, it was not my Queen's job to concern herself with my health." Beelzalea stated calmly.

With a patient sigh, Finster shook his head. Sometimes, he found Beelzalea to be incredibly stubborn.

Obviously, even after several years of working for Rita's mother, had not changed her much. She was very obedient of those in higher authority of her, but stubborn to those at her level of servitude.

"Queen Minerva only wants what's best for you. She values you as a servant to her, and therefore is concerned about your health."

Beelzalea turned and crossed her arms, looking down at the floor.

"Minerva is not concerned about my health...she is concerned about my alliance." She stated bitterly looking at the dark stone of the cave wall.

Finster approached Beelzalea, his stern look to the younger Magi not lessening in the least bit.

"Beelzalea, do you remember when you began your work as Queen Minerva's Magi?" He asked.

There was a silence from Beelzalea for several seconds after this question had been asked. She hadn't forgotten, Finster knew. She just didn't want to talk about it. Just like she didn't want to talk about her life before she had started working for Minerva.

"....Then you know exactly why you should be taking the medicine that Queen Minerva told me to bring you." Finster stated as he looked over at the white haired magi.

Beelzalea smiled slightly, giving Finster a look as if to tell him that she would take the medicine as she was ordered.

Returning the smile, and adjusting his glasses, Finster turned to leave the room, after bidding Beelzalea good night.

"...oh and Beelzalea?" Finster added as he left the room.

Beelzalea raised an eyebrow as she looked at Finster.

"....You shouldn't be conversing with the Red Ranger behind Queen Minerva's back, as the consequences of Minerva finding out would be most unpleasant."

A small smile broke across Beelzalea's face. So Finster had heard, of course with his exceptional hearing, she hadn't expected any less. But, at least he didn't sound mad, so he was more than likely not going to tell Minerva and would keep it a secret between the two of them.

"...and if it is to the benefit of helping Rita succeed in conquering the Earth?"

"You are an entity of pure evil, and that's that...you shouldn't be conversing with one of your sworn enemies, even if it is intended as deception...and could aid in Queen Rita's plans of conquering the Earth." Finster stated as he turned and left the room.

As the door shut behind him Beelzalea looked over at the medicine on her bedside table, with a frown she picked up the bottle and stared at it. Its Blue-green color caught the dim light of the room.

* * *

Morning had come, unfortunately.

Tommy had been late getting up and getting ready that morning, which for him wasn't exactly anything new for the White-Ranger.

He was an adventurous and fearless leader of the Power Rangers, a person who took his martial-arts training seriously as a way to build discipline, and believed in hard work and determination. He, like most teenagers that he knew, .just had a difficult time finding the determination to get up out of bed in the mornings, so that he could become that adventurous and determined person that he was.

When he rushed down stairs, struggling to put his jacket on while walking, he found his parents sitting in the living room talking to Jason, who was looking a little bit like he also had some difficulty waking up this morning as well.

"Tommy has always been a late sleeper, sometimes I swear that boy would sleep through a monster attack if he could. I'm sorry that he's making you wait like this. He should be down in a minute." Mrs. Oliver stated as she looked at Jason with a small smile and a laugh.

"It's alright; I'm not in any real hurry."

"Hey, Jase. Sorry I took so long. Anyhow, ready to go?" Tommy asked as he came down the stairs.

Jason looked up at Tommy with a slightly hesitant smile, before getting up and telling Mrs. Oliver goodbye.

"...Oh, Tommy, Jason. Please be careful out there okay?" Mrs. Oliver stated as the two boys turned to leave.

Jason nodded, "Don't worry we will ma'am."

Once more Jason and Tommy turned to leave, only to be stopped once more.

"Tommy, aren't you forgetting something?"

Tommy looked thoughtful several seconds, as he tried to think, what his possibly could be forgetting.

Mrs. Oliver sighed and put her hands on her hips. She knew her son hadn't forgotten what she was talking about, he just didn't want to something that would embarrass him in front of his friend.

Finally giving into his mother's annoyed look, Tommy smiled slightly and gave his mother a quick hug and a kiss, telling her that he was just playing around.

"There, that's better. Now, you two have fun, and come back safely alright?"

With that, the two boys left the house.

* * *

The time had finally come, Sleep-walker thought as he looked down at the gadget that he had just finished creating.

Looking at the clock, he grinned. The White and Gold Ranger had left just a few minutes ago, which meant that it was close to time to begin to carry out his mission.

Turning, around in his mind, he faced Rocky with an evil Grin.

"It looks like you've lost Red Ranger; you might as well just give up hope now. I promise I'll make your friend's deaths quick and painless."

Taking hold of Rocky's hair and pulling Rocky's head up so that he could see his face, Sleepwalker grinned psychotically, his red eyes flashing.

"You...haven't won yet..." Rocky stated weakly as he looked up at Sleep-walker.

With a laugh Sleep-walker let go of Rocky's hair and turned his attention away from the trapped Red Ranger. He's deal with him as soon as the other rangers were out of the way.

Sleep-walker took a deep breath as he looked at the device that lay on the table in front of him.

He had created something that looked like a second communicator, except this one had additional buttons upon it, that were meant to disable the Command Center while at the same time leaving him capable of being in contact with all the Rangers, except Tommy, Jason, and Adam.

Pushing the first button, Sleep-walker grinned. The power from the command center should be down now. Which meant it was time for him to contact the others.

Pressing his fingers to the normal communicator, Sleep-walker waited for the other rangers to respond.

"Yeah?" Billy's voice came from over the communicator.

"Guys, It's Rocky. I don't have much time to explain but I got ambushed by one of Minerva's monsters and some Tengu. I managed to get away, and am okay for now, but I don't know how much longer that's gonna last. "

Sleep-walker could almost see all the other rangers giving each other very worried looks. He was sure they bought the story that he had just told them, and would be more than willing to teleport in to their friend's rescue.

"Jason and Tommy aren't here...do you think you could hold out until we can contact them?" Kimberly asked over the communicator.

Sleep-walker smirked as he continued, "Jason and Tommy are already here. I called them right before they left, right as soon as I got attacked and they teleported here. I don't know where they are right now; we got separated in the middle of the attack...." He stated.

"Alright, we'll be there as soon as possible. Try to find Tommy and Jason, and you guys just try to hang in there until we get there..." Zack stated over the communicator.

Sleep-walker, still posing as Rocky, told them that he would do that before ending the communicator transmission.

The Rangers would probably be morphing now, he thought as he looked at the second-communicator device. Counting the seconds that it would take for the Rangers to complete their transformation.

.....and now they would be teleporting.

With this, Sleep-walker immediately pressed the other button on the device. At the same time, he touched the other communicator, in a flash of red he teleported out of the room, ready to go and reveal to the other rangers that they had just walked head-first into his trap.

* * *

When the other Rangers had landed after their teleportation, they found themselves in a place they had not been expecting to find themselves at.

While, they had been expecting to see a location somewhere in Angel Grove, like the park, which would have monsters running about, and they would see the White, Gold, or Red Rangers in battle against a monster.

This place was just a dreary carnival ground. Thunder roared in their ears, as lightening split the dark clouds that were gathering in the sky above the carnival. Rain poured down on them, making the whole place miserable, as well like something out of a horror movie.

"Where are we?" Kat asked as she looked around the area. She was hoping to catch some glimpse of a battle or monsters so that she could confirm that they were in the right area, but from the looks of things, this place was totally deserted.

"Well, according to the energy readings on the MPVG, this place is some sort of hidden dimension." Billy stated looking down at the device in his hand, analyzing the information that had popped up on the screen.

Trini crossed her arms and shivered. This carnival was starting to give her the creeps quickly. She was getting a really bad feeling about this place. Something just wasn't right.

"Are you sure that Rocky, Jason, and Tommy are here?" She asked as she looked around the dreary grounds, and then looking up at the dark sky above them. This place appeared to be totally deserted of any form of life, except the group of rangers that had just arrived.

Billy tapped a few buttons on the MPVG and then nodded. "The signal from Rocky's communicator can be traced back to this location." He stated.

Kimberly put her hands on her hips, as she looked around.

"Well, obviously no one is here...and if things are as bad as Rocky was telling us, we'd better find him, Tommy, and Jason quick."

The others looked at one another and nodded.

"We can cover more ground if we split up. Aisha and I will be on one team, Billy, you and Trini will be the second team and Kimberly that leaves you and Kat on a team." Zack stated as he divided up the group to begin their search.

"Okay, I don't know what type of traps Rita and Zedd have set up around here so let's keep in touch with each other through the communicators and the MPVGs." Billy stated as the three teams went in separate directions to begin their search for their friends.

* * *

"So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about Jason?" Tommy asked.

The two had decided to stop by a restaurant for lunch on their way to the desert to go looking for arrow-heads. It was nearing noon anyways, and both Jason and Tommy hadn't had anything to eat all day.

"Well, you remember....back when you were, losing your powers..." Jason asked as he took a deep breath, shutting off the engine of the Jeep.

Tommy nodded, how could he exactly forget? Even though he had basically moved on from his Green-Ranger days after he had lost his powers, he hadn't exactly forgotten about the whole thing.

".....Well, you know that Rita had that Green Candle that was taking your power away... you know that If I hadn't turned back, I could have kept you from losing your powers..." Jason stated as he looked down at the steering wheel, as images of that day went through his mind.

With a sigh Tommy crossed his arms. This is what Jason wanted to talk to him about, the whole 'green candle' incident? Had Jason's decision to return to the aid of the team and abandon the mission to keep him from losing his Green Ranger Power been really bothering the former red Ranger for this long?

"I don't know why, but sometimes when I just stop and think about it, I start to wonder if you might have some sort of grudge against me for not destroying the candle so you could keep your powers." Jason continued.

"...Jase, you did what was best. I thought you of all people would know, that sometimes you have to use your better judgment, and sometimes that means making sacrifices. You had to make the decision between sacrificing my power as the Green Ranger, or sacrificing the lives of the team...and the lives of our friends were a lot more important than my power."

With a nod Jason continued to look down at the steering wheel. Tommy put his hand on Jason's shoulder, giving his friend a reassuring smile.

"Besides, even if you had managed to find a way to help the others and destroy the candle, allowing me to keep my Green Ranger Powers, Rita probably would have found some way to take away my powers still."

Tommy gave Jason another smile. "Besides. I'm the White Ranger now, and I don't think I could ever image what it would be like to still be the Green Ranger. If anything I owe you one for that. If you hadn't gone back to the others, I would never have gotten to be the White Ranger."

Jason returned the smile, Tommy was right, if he had continued on and destroyed the Green Candle like he was supposed to do, then Zordon and Alpha would never have created the White Ranger power, and Tommy would still be the Green Ranger now.

"....Now, before we even continue this conversation, because I can tell that you've got more to talk about besides that whole incident, how about we go inside and get something to eat. I'm starved, and you know how I hate talking about the past on an empty stomach." Tommy joked as he opened the door and got out of the Jeep.

With a nod, and a laugh, Jason got out of the Jeep and followed Tommy into the restaurant.

* * *

"Zedd, The only Rangers I can find on Earth right now are the Gold, White, and Black Rangers. There's no sign of the others, or that monster of ours!" Rita screeched as she brought her eye away from the telescope.

With a dark and sinister laugh, Zedd sat down on his throne.

"Don't you worry yourself about those Rangers, my darling? Sleep-walker has taken them to another dimension, in order to kill them."

Rita smiled gleefully upon hearing that he Rangers were going to be killed. It was about time that the Rangers were to be defeated! It finally looked like something was going right.

"Well, I hope he spares the Silver one! I thought I made it clear that he was mine....but if he does kill him, then I guess I won't be that upset. I mean either way Silver Ranger will be dead." Minerva stated in as she flipped open the bright green fan in her hands.

"Who authorized this plan?"

At this all eyes in the room turned to Beelzalea. She was standing there looking like she normally did, her eyes a dark red color, showing them that she already had an idea of how to answer the question that she had asked.

"Why I did, Beelzalea. Is there some sort of problem you have with that?" Zedd asked sinisterly as he looked at the white-haired Magi.

"Sleep-walker is not your creation...The only people here allowed to give the order to Sleep-walker are Finster, My Mistress Rita, and I." Beelzalea stated as she looked at Zedd.

Minerva laughed as she passed by Beelzalea, fanning herself with the green fan while she walked.

"Oh Beelzalea, If I didn't know any better, I would say that someone is a little jealous that it wasn't her idea!" She stated in a teasing voice.

Beelzalea remained silent as she glared at Zedd.

"Beelzalea, you seem to forget that things around here are not like they are in my mother's castle." Rita stated crossing her arms, giving a shrill laugh.

"Yes Beelzalea, in this castle you have a little less authority than you do in Minerva's castle. If Rita or I decide that we can give an order to a monster we didn't create we can bypass the authority of those who created it, such as what I have done as far as giving Sleep-walker new orders." Zedd sneered as he looked down from his throne at Beelzalea.

Minerva's lips curved into a small smile as she placed her claw like hand on Beelzalea's shoulder.

"Things are different than they are back home, understand?"

"Yes, My Queen, I understand perfectly. I can assure you that I will not forget my place in this castle anymore." Beelzalea stated quietly as she looked at the ground, after bowing her head.

"Good, now, return to your studies." Minerva stated as Beelzalea left the room.

* * *

"I don't like this place at all." Aisha stated as she crossed her arms and shivered slightly.

She and Zack had spent the last few hours walking through the "house of mirrors", in hopes of possibly finding Rocky, Tommy, or Jason hanging out here.

"I know what you mean, we've been walking through this place for hours, and all that I've found is a complete headache." Zack stated putting his hand on his helmet closing his eyes temporarily to try to keep himself from getting dizzy.

"This is just like what happened last time I was in one of these places." Aisha stated as she put her gloved hand on one of the mirrors in front of her.

Zack raised an eyebrow and looked to the Yellow Ranger, tilting his head as if to ask Aisha to tell her story, and give them something to talk about, which might make this place seem less creepy.

"...Well, when I was ten, I remember the Stone-Canyon fair being in town, and Rocky, Adam, Shauna, and Dustin, and a couple of our other friends decided to go." Aisha began as she remembered the day that she was telling about.

"Shauna, and Dustin, and our other friends thought it would be funny to go into the house of mirrors, and half way through, they thought it would be funny to ditch me, Rocky, and Adam in the middle of the place." She continued with a slight smile.

"...Well, I was still feeling a little sick from one of the rides that Dustin had talked me in to going on, and well, having to navigate through a maze of mirrors, wasn't helping. The three of us got about half way through the place, and got seriously lost, kinda like we are now."

Aisha paused from telling her story, as she started laughing real hard. "Rocky made the mistake if asking if I was alright....and as soon as I opened my mouth to answer him, I was so sick and dizzy that I threw up all over him...and then turned around and accidentally threw up on Adam! I felt so bad for what I did, and neither of them were really happy about it either, which I don't blame them..."

Zack gave a small smile from behind his helmet. It was good to hear Aisha laugh; at least it made the place seem less creepy.

After a few seconds of just travelling through the place in silence, they found themselves at circular room. A dead, end, much to the dismay of the both of them. Unfortunately they would have to go back to the entrance, where ever it was.

"Well, it doesn't seem like they're here. We'd better turn back." Aisha stated with a sigh as she looked around at the empty room. Only seeing her and Zack reflected in the mirrors several times.

"I'm afraid that's not an option, Yellow Ranger." A sinister voice stated, as the over-head lights in the room were shut out, and replaced with a single cold and harsh spot light in the middle of the room.

Suddenly, Aisha saw another reflection appear in the mirrors with them. The figure appeared to be human, except that it appeared to have an aura of dark red smoke hovering around its body. The red slits that the creature called eyes, glowed through the darkness menacingly.

Drawing out their blade-blasters and aiming at the source of this voice, which according to the reflection, was behind them Zack and Aisha's eyes widened in shock.

"Rocky?!"

It was true; their friend stood there, as the Red Ranger, the power-sword in one hand, and the blade-blaster in the other, aimed at the two of them,

Aisha had a bad feeling about all of this. If she had ever needed anything to reassure her that Rocky had not been himself in the last few days, this was it. She knew that Rocky would never have aimed his weapons at a fellow Ranger.

In fact, it wasn't really like Rocky to use weapons at all. Aisha knew that usually Rocky preferred hand-to-hand combat over weapons. Unless the use of weapons in the situation was entirely necessary...like during some of the monster battles that they had been in.

"Rocky, come on, stop playing around, the others are looking for you." Zack stated as he took a step towards the Red Ranger. Still willing to believe that it was their friend who stood there.

A blast of red energy shot from the end of the blade-blaster that Rocky held in his hands, missing the Silver Ranger's foot by only a few inches.

"I'm sorry Silver Ranger, but I can't allow you or the Yellow Ranger to leave. At least, not alive."

Aisha and Zack both gave each other worried looks, they weren't sure if they should attack, since it was one of their fellow Rangers after all...and attacking meant taking the risk of killing him.

"You know I had expected the Pink and Green Rangers to find their way here first." 'Rocky' stated as he approached the two Rangers, the blade-blaster still aimed at them.

With a laugh, "Rocky" lowered his head. "You'd be surprised at how things turn out. Sometimes, wouldn't you?" He asked, quickly looking towards Aisha's terror filled eyes as she stared down the blade-blaster to the monster that had taken on the appearances of her friend.

"Well, in any case...you all would have walked right into this trap eventually."

"Rocky, what's gotten into you? Don't you recognize us? We're your friends!" Zack stated, causing "Rocky" to turn his weapon toward Zack.

From behind the dark visor of the helmet, Zack could almost see a flash of red, where Rocky's eyes should have been. Showing him that it wasn't Rocky who stood in front of him, rather a monster in Ranger's clothing, only verified whenever Zack managed to catch a glimpse of the whole scene in the mirror, and saw the monster

"Now, if you don't mind. It looks like the your friends are having a little bit of difficulty falling into this trap, So It looks like I'm going to have to leave you two for now, to go lead them in the right direction."

With this "Rocky" snapped his fingers, causing red sparks to appear, and fly toward each of the mirrors, before backing out of the room.

When he had disappeared into the darkness, the sound of psychotic laughter slowly fading off into the distance, Aisha took note that the reflections of the monster that had appeared when "Rocky" had not left with him. Instead, she realized in horror, the monsters seemed to be coming toward them, right toward the mirror.

...almost as if they were going to break out of the mirror. Aisha realized. Of course no sooner had she said this did the creatures actually materialize in front of them, breaking through the other side of the mirror, as if it were merely water and they were real, instead of reflections upon this glass.

Soon, Zack and Aisha found themselves surrounded by these mirror-monsters.

Quickly Zack tapped his communicator. If they couldn't escape the most they could do would be to alert Zordon, and the others of the Danger.

Much to his dismay however, Zack found that his communicator was not able to pick up a connection with the command center, or any of the others.

* * *

Alpha found himself scurrying around the command center trying to get the computers up and running again. Something had disabled the computers earlier, and without the computers, Alpha knew that they would not be able to contact the rangers, in case any sort of danger struck Angel Grove.

Almost all the computers were down, however the morphing Grid's uplink was still intact which, was partially a relief to both Alpha and Zordon, at least if the Rangers encountered any sort of danger they would be able to morph.

Of course, aside from that, another odd thing was that the viewing globe remained properly functioning. Alpha could see the Rangers on the viewing globe, and could center in on the different teams as they went searching through the deserted carnival area. (Which Alpha, was still trying to figure out why they were even there in the first place....and where this place was.)

Things weren't go so well, for the Rangers....especially not for Aisha and Zack, who when Alpha had finally managed to get a lock on them, were being surrounded by a swarm of strange monsters.

But with no way for them to contact the Rangers, Alpha couldn't contact the others to warn them, and with the computers not working they couldn't even contact Jason and Tommy to alert them of the situation or even send them to the aid of the other Rangers.

Alpha only hoped that the Rangers could work their way out of trouble on their own. At least until the computers were up and running again.

* * *

So far, after several hours of searching, Kimberly and Kat had found nothing in this realm except for eerie shadows and rain.

As Kimberly rounded the corner of one of the buildings she aimed her blade blaster, having thought she seen a shadow that might have been a monster, even though after the third time of seeing a shadow or hearing a noise she had found no one there, she was starting to get severely paranoid.

"This place seriously gives me the creeps." Kat stated as she lowered her blade-blaster.

Kimberly nodded in agreement, as the two stopped for a minute to decide which direction to go in next.

Both of them were staring to get really doubtful that the battle was in their direction, and were hoping that the others were having better luck than they were.

"We should probably contact the others; see if they're having any luck finding Rocky, Tommy, and Jason. I hope they're alright." Kat stated shaking her head as she placed her hand on the side of the building they were standing next to looking at the dreary art-work that was painted upon it.

Kimberly nodded, "I hope so too. It was hard enough to lose Adam like we did; I don't think that any of us are exactly ready to deal with losing anyone else." She stated as she looked down one of the pathways ahead of her.

She saw a shape moving in the fog towards them, although she couldn't see the shape clearly; she could tell that it at least appeared human.

It didn't take long for Kat and Kimberly to find out what, who rather who, was coming towards them since the person was running towards them.

Before they knew it, Rocky was standing in front of them, morphed and trying to catch his breath. Even though they couldn't see his face from behind the Red Ranger Helmet, they both could tell that he was panicked about something.

"Rocky, are you alright?! Did you find Tommy and Jason? Where's the monsters?" Kat asked quickly barely giving Rocky enough time to answer her questions.

"Oh, god. Kat, Kimberly...am I glad to see you guys! Tommy is hurt really bad, and I don't know how much longer he's gonna last."

"Where is he?!" Both Kimberly and Kat found themselves almost shouting in demanding voices. Hearing that Tommy was in serious trouble, sent both of them into a slight panic.

"I left him back at the mirror house, I don't know how much longer he'll be safe there. I swear it's almost like these monsters can track someone down just by the scent of blood! We'd better hurry!" Rocky stated to them as he took off in the direction that he had just come from, with Kimberly and Kat not too far behind him.

* * *

"Hey, Billy, does something seem off about this whole situation to you?" Trini asked as she and Billy walked through the area.

Looking down at the MPVG in his hands, Billy nodded. "We can't get in touch with the Command Center, or any of the others. We get a signal from Rocky's communicator, coming from this dimension....." He started.

Trini crossed her arms, and started to slow down while walking. "....so we know it can't be this dimension that is blocking our communicators from getting in touch with anybody....I mean if Rocky was able to tell us that he was in trouble." She stated.

"If Rocky could get in touch with us before we got here, and he was here before us, then that could only mean that there has to be some device around here that is blocking our communicators, and it must have been activated when we got here." Billy stated as he tapped a few buttons on the MPVG, causing a new screen to come up.

The purpose of this screen, Billy explained to Trini when she had asked, was to detect the location of the device. He told her that the device that was blocking the signal, should be putting out some sort of transmission or energy reading that the MPVG could probably pick up and using that they could find the device and shut it down.

Trini crossed her arms. "The only question I have is who made the device?" She asked.

Billy shook his head, looking up from the MPVG. "I don't know, for someone to have built such a device to be able to block our communicator signals...and teleportation, it would require some knowledge of the Command Centers systems." he stated.

Stopping in her tracks completely, Trini looked at Billy with a look of complete shock. It had taken a few seconds Trini to finally understand what Billy was saying.

"Billy...." She stated, not really sure how to tell him the thought that had just come to her mind, or if Billy had already realized what she had just realized either.

Slowly Billy turned to her, if he had not had his Ranger helmet on, Trini would have been able to tell that his face was starting to go pale, and his eyes wide in shock. His blood was running cold, as the realization sank in.

"There are only a few people who even have an idea of the workings of the Command Center; Us, Zordon and Alpha, and the other Rangers." Billy stated.

Trini shivered at the idea. There had to be a traitor among the Rangers that had set up the device and walked them right into a trap. Either that or Zordon and Alpha had both gone evil and had betrayed them...which was highly unlikely.

"Now that I think about it, when I was in my lab after we returned from the Command Center, I thought something was missing. I couldn't quiet place my finger on it until just now. A while back, I had made a device that could interfere with the Command Center's signal, not on purpose of course...I had been under one of Rita and Zedd's monster's spells. When the spell was lifted, I destroyed the device but kept the parts...and all the parts went missing last night."

Looking down at the ground, Trini tried to think of who could possibly have broken into Billy's lab, stolen the parts and set up the device, to walk them into this trap. Who had that much knowledge of the Command Center and machines to know how to even set up the device?

"Well, it couldn't be you, or me, Billy, because...we were both at the Command Center last night...and the parts had to be taken while you were gone."

"....And it's not Jason, Zack, Aisha, Kat, or Kimberly, because they were with us at the Command Center, and left when we did." Trini continued as she shook her head, still finding it hard to believe that someone had betrayed them.

"....So the only people who could possibly have done this would be Tommy, or Rocky." Billy concluded.

"But, which one? I mean, Tommy is our leader...so why would he do that? But then again....I'm not sure if Rocky could have done it. I mean...no offense to him, but I doubt that he could have even made the device..." Trini asked/stated as she looked at Billy.

They only had two people who didn't have any evidence to prove that they were innocent, and both of their suspects had their own reasons for why they could be innocent. Tommy was two devoted to being a Ranger and to leading the team to try to kill them, and Rocky didn't especially specialize in electronic devices, and creating them that he could have done it.

A soft click was heard, which both Trini and Billy knew to be the sound made whenever a blade-blaster was switched from blade-mode to Blaster-mode...or the other way around.

Following this was a voice that answered the questions that they had been having about who had betrayed the Ranger team. A voice that made the two Ranger's blood freeze.

"...I'll give you a hint, Orange Ranger."

Turning slowly, toward the person who stood behind them, both Trini and Billy's stomachs turned at the sight of the Red Ranger standing there, with the blade-blaster aimed at them, as if he had the intention to kill.

"..._Rocky_...." Billy stated darkly as he looked at the Red Ranger who stood there.

A dark laugh issued from the Red-Ranger's lips as he looked at the two Rangers standing before him.

"...._It was you_." Trini finished in open-mouthed shock.

Slowly, "Rocky" began clapping as if to mock the Blue and Orange Ranger on having realized the terrible truth of the situation.

"Very good! Very good! You've finally caught on!" He stated with a mocking tone of voice.

"...but why?"

"Rocky" aimed the blade Blaster at the two of them once more. They certainly had a bunch of questions that he thought would have been obvious for them to figure out. Of course, he wasn't putting it past them to not understand anything about what was going on, after all these were the same people that he been among for the last few days without them realizing it.

"We don't have time for these questions. Now, start walking....or I'll shoot."

* * *

It would be dark in a few hours, Adam thought as he looked toward the hazy cliffs. He could just see the Command Center off in the distance. They would be there in a matter of hours.

The sun was already starting to go down, and the desert sky was staring to darken. Right now the sky looked like as if it were on fire. It was a really beautiful sight, the kind that made Adam wish that he had a camera with him.

He couldn't help but have a bad recall to his dream though. He had been in this area, or somewhere close to this area in the dream, and it had been close to this time.

...If his dream was a sign of an ambush...and of Tommy and Ceres's death, then it should all be happening in a few hours.

Giving a glance next to him, he noticed that the girl was starting to look around the area with an uneasy stare. She was holding Ceres in her arms rather tightly, (Which Adam could tell that Ceres was not very comfortable, or happy about, since Ceres was squirming around in her arms trying to break free.)

It looked like he wasn't the only one worried about what may or may not occur in the future. Of course, Adam could only assume that the girl was worried about something completely different since he had never told her about the dream that he had.

"You alright?"

The girl looked at Adam, giving a nod and a false smile. Even though right now her stomach was very uneasy, she didn't want to let on to Adam that she had a bad dream a few days ago, and a lot of the landscape around here was starting to look really familiar.

Plus thinking about the possibility that if this dream were to come true, really upset her since it would mean that Ceres would die.

"So, you usually strangle rabbits when you are alright?" Adam asked with a slight smile, to show that he knew she was lying to him.

Looking down at Ceres, the girl gave a brief laugh as she dropped her adoptive mother, and rubbed the back of her neck.

Adam could see the girl's dirt covered face starting to turn pink out of embarrassment. He almost had to laugh.

"Sorry, Ceres...I guess I wasn't thinking..." the girl stated as she looked down at the rabbit.

"_That's quiet alright, Child. You had something on your mind, and while I don't know what you could possibly have been thinking about that would make you nearly kill me, and rip my fur off, I'm sure it was distracting enough to cause you not to know what you were doing." _Ceres stated with a slight laugh.

Giving a small smile, the girl picked Ceres up again and gave the rabbit a small brief kiss on the head before continuing on.

* * *

Kimberly and Kat both had to catch their breaths; they had practically run all the way across this place, in pursuit of Rocky. At some point between where they had run into him and the house- of mirrors he had gotten too far ahead of them, and had almost literally vanished into the mist.

Both of them were pretty sure that he had gone ahead, and had probably still thought that they had been behind him, even though they obviously weren't.

It didn't matter though; they knew that they would end up running into him when they reach the place where they had been heading.

"Tommy must be pretty far back in this place." Kimberly stated as she and Kat made their way through the maze of mirrors as quickly as they could.

When they had gotten quite a ways into the place, they could hear the muffled sounds of a confrontation echoing off the walls.

"Who is that? It's not Tommy is it?" Kimberly asked as she looked at Kat with a slight tone of worry ringing in her voice.

Pulling out her MPVG, Kat pushed a few buttons. The screen showed a radar system, dots that were supposed to be representing the Yellow and Silver Rangers were blinking close to their location.

"Well, there's no sign of Tommy's power signal, but Aisha and Zack are close by...and they're in trouble it looks like they're surrounded!" Kat said as she looked up from the device.

"We'd better hurry..." Kimberly stated as she took off towards their friend's location at a sprint.

* * *

Aisha backed closer to Zack as she held out her fist ready to strike, or defend herself if the situation called for it.

Zack gulped as the Mirror-monsters came closer to them. Really, there wasn't any way that the two of them even stood a chance against these guys. They were outnumbered greatly. Plus there was no telling how strong these guys were.

What they needed right now was a miracle. Like a brief period where their communicators started working, and they could teleport out of this place.

Like that would actually happen, and even if it did, Zack knew that neither of them would be willing to take the opportunity to get themselves out of this place when they both knew that their friends were still around this place and in potential danger.

A barrage of bright pink energy arrows and a flash of green partially illuminated the area as they sliced through the enemies that surrounded the Yellow and Silver Rangers.

Well, it wasn't exactly the miracle that he had been looking for, since the monsters wouldn't be going down that easily, but it would do, Zack thought as he saw the Pink and Green Rangers standing a couple of feet behind where the monsters that had been guarding the entrance had been, both holding their Power-weapons.

"You guys alright?" Kat asked as she approached the two of them.

"...Guys, it's a trap! This whole damn place is just one big trap, and we've walked right into the heart of the trap..." Aisha almost shouted as she threw her hands up in the air.

Truthfully, she wasn't really mad at anyone, she was just frustrated with this whole situation, and on top of that she was completely scared to death over the whole thought that she had already lost one of her best friends to death, while the other had supposedly become a monster

Curiously Kimberly tilted her head, Aisha was mad. That was something that she hadn't seen often. Usually Aisha was the one telling the other Rangers to get their acts together when they started letting the stress of the job get to them.

"Aisha, what's wrong? What do you mean?" She asked. Although she had heard Aisha clearly on her saying that they had walked right into a trap she wasn't sure what exactly what Aisha had meant in saying it.

Although, Aisha gave no reply, the chill that was running down Kimberly's spine at the moment told her that she would find out the answer to her question very soon.

The sound of footsteps echoing in the darkness behind them caused all of them to jump and turn toward the entrance of the room.

In a matter of seconds, the forms of the Orange and Blue Rangers slowly made their way into the room. Kimberly could already tell that something was up, by the way that her friends didn't even address them, and the way that they were walking in slow, careful steps...almost as if they were trying to be cautious not to make any sudden movements.

Seeing the two approaching the group like this gave Kimberly a sense of dread as she gulped. Her throat become dry, as she found her breathing restricted by terror.

As Billy and Trini proceeded into the light to join the other Rangers, the light immediately changed from being bright and shining white, to a bloody red. A light that gave a sinister feel to the whole room, causing the Kimberly's heart to beat rapidly against the inside of her chest. This sudden change couldn't be good.

...and who she saw stepping from the shadows made her heart stop for a few seconds, and her voice become caught in her throat.

The Red suit, with the white-diamond pattern across the chest. The white Gloves and boots with the red diamond pattern across the top. The Red helmet that was designed in a fashion to resemble a Tyrannosaurus, the Dinosaur-power that this color had once been associated with, the white belt and blade-blaster holster. Kimberly undeniably knew that there was only one person who wore this Ranger suit nowadays.

Aisha had a reason to be angry, Kimberly understood perfectly well now. In fact, once she set aside the pure shock at the sight of the Red Ranger standing there, and could clearly allow herself to understand what was going on, she was rather angered too.

"Rocky?" Kat asked curiously, backing up as the Red Ranger approached the six rangers. She knew something just wasn't right about him.

"I don't think you should really care Katherine. You'll and the other Rangers will be dead soon anyhow."

A psychotic laugh rang through their ears, tearing apart the air as a solid steel wall fell down before them, sealing off the entrance, much to the Ranger's dismay.

While the laughter continued the Rangers watched in horror as the Mirror Monsters that they had defeated before this whole incident had occurred once more appeared, standing a few feet behind the Red Ranger who had his arms crossed and was looking down at the Rangers.

In this scarlet light, the Red Suited Warrior that had once been their friend seemed to have completely transformed, although still carrying the same physical appearance. Where the lively, fun loving, friendly, teenager had once been, there was a psycho-path demon, hell-bent on death and destruction, especially of the Rangers.

With this, change, the Rangers had begun to feel that they had just stepped into the heart of all their worst nightmares combined. If there was such a thing as hell, all six rangers, were sure that they had just fallen straight to the center of it, and if they hadn't known that the Ranger that had led them all there was their friend and fellow Ranger, they could swear that he could pass for being the King of Hell himself.

Rocky, wasn't himself, and all of them now understood that. True, they had no idea who he was anymore, and that's what really put fear in their hearts. There was no telling if the Red Ranger that they had come to know still existed, or had he been lost to this hell forever?

The rangers knew that if there was even a chance of bringing Rocky back they would take it. Even if they had to descend into the darkest depths of Hell, and face off with the Devil himself just to rescue their friend from this grasp of evil that seemed to have taken over him.

* * *


	9. Fighting a Memory

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to power rangers.

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* * *

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**Chapter Nine: Fighting a Memory**

Sleep-walker planned to do a mass execution. Rocky thought bitterly as he looked at his friends, who were looking back at him in hopeless, helpless, terror.

Sleep-walker had the Rangers exactly where he wanted them, backed against a wall and at his mercy. Rocky was almost sure that he would soon be witnessing the death of each one of his friends, at what was literally his own hands...even if his hands were being controlled by someone else.

"It was all a set up. You weren't ever in any danger were you?" Zack asked as he looked at the Red Ranger before him. The bitterness and confusion rang in his voice loud and clear.

"I'm afraid so, Silver Ranger."

"...and Jason and Tommy?" Billy asked.

"Safely in the desert, for now at least."

"Rocky, what's the matter with you?"

Sleep-walker looked down at the Red Ranger's friends as they looked up at him, asking this question of him. He could just see the disbelief in their eyes from behind their helmets. Obviously, when Beelzalea, Rita, and Finster had selected the host-body for him...they had selected well.

Quiet a few times they had suspected that something had been up with their friend, and yet they still seemed to not have suspected him at all, seeing the shock that was clearly written on their faces.

"Why are you doing this?" Trini asked calmly, looking up at the Red Ranger.

Approaching her Sleep-walker frowned, "I'm merely carrying out the reasons for my existence, killing the Power Rangers, my sworn enemies."

"But, Rocky..._You're _a Ranger."

"Yeah! You're a Ranger like us!"

With a brief grimace, Sleep-walker shook his head and crossed his arms as he looked down at the Pink Ranger, who had just spoken.

"No, that's where you are wrong, Pink Ranger. I'm not like you. I'm not a Ranger. I was never a Ranger." Sleep-walker sneered darkly into Kimberly's ear, as he knelt down to the Pink Ranger, holding the blaster to her neck.

Summoning all the force that she could, Kimberly brought her hand up to "Rocky"'s face, slapping him and causing him to stumble backwards away from her. Even though she knew the slap wasn't effective because of the whole fact that he had his helmet on.

"You know, I was planning on just doing a mass execution of all you Rangers. All Six of you against me." Sleep-walker began as he looked down at the Rangers.

The whole idea was a little awkward to the Rangers, was "Rocky" really saying that he had planned to go into battle against all six of them at once? The whole idea had seemed insane; Rocky wouldn't stand a chance against them, even if each of them held back on the force of their attacks.

"As much as I prefer to test my strength, in a fight where I would be terribly outnumbered, just to prove to you all that I am the strongest. I think I'm going to make a few changes to my plans."

With this, all the rangers except the Pink Ranger were thrown against the walls by an invisible force. The Rangers fell through the glass of the mirrors that lined the walls. As each one got to their feet and made an attempt to make their way back over towards Kimberly, they found themselves blocked by a barrier.

Kimberly was trapped alone with "Rocky" and there didn't seem to be much of a way for them to help her out. They would have to trust that she would be able to fight "Rocky" on her own.

"You see, as I see it, killing you all at once would prove to you my strength. However, it would cause the battle to end all too quickly. So instead, Thanks to the Pink Ranger's most recent actions, I've decided to face you all in separate one-on-one duels." Sleep-walker began.

"Lucky for you Pink Ranger, I'm even going to hold back my power so that you don't die right away."

With this Sleep-walker walked toward Kimberly, and put the blade-blaster back into its holster at his side. He outstretched his free hand toward The Pink Ranger, who stood in the center of the room looking rather confused and panicked.

Sleep-walker gave a low, graceful bow to the Pink Ranger, as if he were trying to be a sophisticated gentleman meeting a princess from the medieval times, or a person about to enter into an old fashioned duel. This was a move that caused the Pink Ranger to go rigid, she had never seen Rocky act like such a "gentleman", unless he was joking with her.

But with how he was acting she was pretty sure that he wasn't just joking around, and actually intended to duel against her.

"If we're going to make this a proper duel, you have to bow to your opponent before the duel can begin." he stated to her, with a very proper and polite voice, even though it was filled with evil undertones.

Kimberly gripped the Power-bow in her hands, but made no movement to bow in return. She was still trying to figure out what was going on, and was creeped out by "Rocky"'s odd behavior. To add to that, she honestly didn't want to fight her friend at all.

As "Rocky" stood back up, he looked directly at the Pink Ranger before him. He let out an angry growl.

"You know, Pink Ranger, Bowing to one's opponent is a formality when dueling. It shows that you have enough courtesy and respect for your opponent. Since I have bowed to you, the least you could do would be to show your respect in return."

Kimberly scoffed in disbelief as she looked at him. He really had the nerve to talk about courtesy and respect?

"Oh, please! Rocky! Like hell, I'm even going to bow to you! Courtesy? Respect? After what you've just done?!! Ha! I'd show respect to a worm, before showing respect to you! You think after you've betrayed us like this that you can even force me to show you any respect?"

With another angry growl, Sleep-walker stuck out his hand toward Kimberly. A red aura surrounded his hand, He watched with satisfaction as Kimberly tried to fight against his power, as he forced her to return the bow to him.

Sleep-walker brought his hand back to his side, releasing Kimberly from his power. With a quick sweeping motion, he readied his weapon prepared to strike, as Kimberly readied her weapon. It was obvious that Kimberly wasn't about to take this from "Rocky" anymore.

The two of them quickly turned from each other, and began to pace away from each other to opposite sides of the room, before turning back around to face each other swiftly.

"Alright, Pink Ranger...on the count of three, we shall begin. _One_..."

Rocky almost wondered how Sleep-walker planned on killing Kimberly. Would he find a way to steal her power, and just shoot her with the blade-blaster unmorphed? Or would he defeat her in battle? Maybe kill her using his magic, and the Power-sword?

Look at me, Rocky thought as he threw the other thoughts from his head, I'm thinking of ways for Kimberly to die, instead of thinking of ways to make sure she doesn't.

_"It doesn't make you a horrible person if you have those thoughts...."_

"_Two..." _Sleep-walker's voice stated cutting into the conversation.

"My friend is about to be killed, and I'm thinking of ways for her to be killed. It sounds to me like I want her to die..." Rocky retorted to the voice in his head almost immediately after it had spoken.

"_You look at your way of thinking as saying that it sounds like you want her to die...another person looks at your way of thinking, as wanting to know what way Sleep-walker plans to kill her, so that you'll be prepared to stop him. Its kind like that whole 'glass' situation, which you Earthlings use to describe view-points." _

While, this voice did make a good point, in Rocky's opinion, it was hard to bring himself to actually feel the same way. How could he possibly be looking at the situation to know how to stop Sleep-walker from harming his friends, when he couldn't even figure out how to get out of the situation he was in?

There was a silence between Rocky and the voice in his head, for several moments. The air was starting to become very cold. This was unusual, since this whole time, the whole area had been hot as hell, and seriously uncomfortable. He wasn't sure what was going on, and even though he knew he should be panicked because of this, he found that the whole situation was actually rather calming.

"_Three!"_

* * *

This and a monstrous battle cry from both Sleep-Walker and Kimberly as they charged into battle with one another, was the last thing that Rocky heard before he was surrounded by silence.

A blinding light filled his vision. As his eyes began to adjust to the light, shapes began to slowly materialize into a familiar scene in this light.

"Am I dead?" he asked aloud as he looked up at the sky of this scene.

"_Of course not! You really think you'd allow yourself to die that easily?"_ A voice said from beside him.

Looking out of the corner of his eye, Rocky saw a ghost like person standing there. They wore a hooded cloak over their head, obscuring their face in shadows, to keep him from being able to see the person's face.

"So then, where am I and what's going on?"

The hooded person just stood there looking straight ahead as more images began to appear before them.

Rocky could see himself standing in his room, talking on the phone. Although he couldn't exactly recall when this moment had occurred, he could tell that it had to have been rather late at night.

"_You remember this day?"_

"No...Not really... I've talked on the phone late at night several times before."

"_Then maybe this will help..."_ The hooded person said, as they held out their hand to the frozen scene.

In an instant the memory began to play, and Rocky saw himself pacing back and forth across his room as he talked on the phone.

"Kim, I'm just saying. You're training a little too hard for this gymnastics competition. I think you should ease up." Rocky, in the memory stated as he walked toward the window and looked outside.

"Rocky!! This competition means a lot to me! It's my only shot at the Pan Globals. I've gotta train! There are gonna be like 50 other gymnasts from Angel Grove competing in this competition, and only like the top 10 are going to move on to the finals...and then like only the top 5 are going to be able to be in the auditions to be trained by Coach Schmidt and compete in the Pan Globals!" Kimberly's voice came from the other side of the phone.

Rocky was beginning to remember this memory. It had taken place before Kimberly's accident.

"50 other gymnasts...sure. But how many of them are recovering from the flu that they caught earlier this year? I know a lot of them are trying to balance gymnastics practice with school. But, how many of them are superheroes added to all of that?"

"To compete in the Pan Globals is a dream I've had since I was little! I've trained my whole life! Of course, I don't expect you to understand about having any sort of childhood dreams!" Kimberly's voice shouted.

With a frown, Rocky (the one not in the memory) closed his eyes. Even now, that one thing that Kimberly had said had stung him.

"...Okay, so competing in the Pan-Globals is your dream. I get it. You know I would never tell you to give up on your dreams." The Rocky in the memory stated in reply to Kimberly, trying to keep his temper down, so that he wouldn't shout and offend Kimberly.

"Yeah, well...that's what it sounds like you're telling me to do damn it."

With this Rocky remembered losing his patience. There just wasn't any talking to Kimberly about holding back on her training.

"Alright. Fine. You know what? I don't even know why I even bothered to call you Go head. Keep up what you're doing! I hope you get injured! When you get severely injured, and end up blowing your shot at the Pan Globals, just remember that I warned you, and you didn't listen!!"

With this the scene had come to a conclusion, once Rocky had slammed the phone down, and then sat down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Since that conversation with Kimberly, he had regretted even having it. A couple of weeks later, Kimberly had the accident. Rocky couldn't help but in a way feel that in a way he had been somewhat responsible for the accident.

Now, listening to the conversation, he still believed that he had been a little too harsh on her. It was her dream to pursue, and he shouldn't have been trying to keep her from it.

Unfortunately, Rocky realized that his whole response before hanging up the phone sounded like something that his mother had said when she would get mad at him because he was doing something dangerous, or something that she didn't approve of.

"_But you weren't mad at her."_

Rocky smirked, "Who? My mother or Kimberly?" he joked.

The hooded person gave a very dull laugh at the Red Ranger's joke. "_Kimberly of course_."

"_You were just concerned about her. She was one of your friends, and you wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to her. It wasn't that you didn't understand her wanting to make her childhood dream into a reality; it was that you wanted to make sure she achieved that dream. If she got hurt, she would miss the competition...and never make it to the Pan Globals." _

But, Rocky thought, Kimberly still got to be trained by Coach Schmidt, and still went to the Pan Globals, despite the accident occurring.

When he had first received word of the accident, he remembered nearly speeding to the hospital, Aisha shouting in his ear the entire time to slow down before they ended up in a wreck, even though she was worried about Kimberly as well, the whole way up there.

Mentally he was beating himself up on the inside, when he had heard about the accident. Every word that he had shouted at Kimberly before slamming the phone down had rang in his head again and again, and while part of him was telling himself that he knew that this was going to happen sooner or later, and that he had told her so, another part of his consciousness was blaming himself and what he had said for this accident.

He remembered that he felt so bad about the whole situation that he couldn't even hang around the hospital until Kimberly woke up. Adam and Aisha had to take him to the park, in order to talk with him, about the whole situation. Trying to convince him that it wasn't his fault.

"_...and why do you think you were blaming yourself for the accident?" _

"Because...I felt that it was my fault. I wondered if maybe I hadn't said what I did to her, she wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"_So, you cared about her_..."

Rocky thought about it. He had cared about Kimberly's safety and her life, and merely been concerned for her that had caused her to say what he did. Rocky knew that he wasn't exactly the best at expressing his concern for others, especially not to them. Plus, he knew that sometimes he lost his temper very easy, and often would say things that he didn't mean.

...and now, Kimberly's life was in danger once more, and what was he doing about it? Nothing! He thought as he clenched his fist, it just wasn't fair, there was not one damn thing that he could do. If only he could find out how he had managed to break free from these vines the last time, when Kimberly had been in trouble!

What had happened then? All he remembered was knowing that Kimberly was in trouble and that he didn't care what happened to him as long as he could protect her. For his friend's sake, he had to protect her, that's what he remembered telling himself. She was the last hope the Rangers had at that moment, against the Witch-Bloom monster, and he had been determined to protect her.

Rocky knew that alone Kimberly did not stand a chance against Sleep-walker. She would undoubtedly be killed by Sleep-walker, even though he had told her that he was going to hold back his destructive magic power in the duel against her, Rocky knew that Sleep-walker was one to pull a cheap-move and go back on his word. Sleep-walker was no different from any other evil that they had ever faced in this way.

He had to do something, there had to be some way to help her. She was one of his best friends and there was no way he was just going to let her die like this. No, she didn't deserve to go down without a chance. There had to be something that he could do to help give her a chance.

Rocky found himself once more feeling determined to help Kimberly. It had worked before he thought and maybe, just maybe it might work again. If he couldn't get free and regain control over his body this time, the least he hoped was that he could channel the energy that had weakened the vines last time into maybe helping give Kimberly some sort of chance against Sleep-walker.

A bright flash of pink came before Rocky's eyes, as he felt what felt like knives enter his forehead. He bit his lip, trying to fight back the pain that whatever he had seen had caused.

"_Oh...that looks rather painful_..." The hooded person standing next to him commented turning towards him.

"Really? You think? Mind telling me what it is that is in my head, and why it didn't kill me?" Rocky asked his voice heavy with sarcasm.

The hooded person crossed their arms for a brief minute before reaching up to Rocky's forehead, and in one quick motion, which caused Rocky to wince as a slight pain as he felt the object being removed.

"_A Power Bow Arrow...Light as a feather, and sharp as any blade. Infused with a holy light energy, that usually is damaging to any beings of evil that it is shot at. This arrow is usually shot by a warrior with extreme accuracy. The Crane must have shot this arrow at Sleep-walker, intending to strike him down; instead it passed through him....and hit you instead_,"

When the person had held up the arrow so that Rocky could see it, and identify it as being an arrow from the Pink Ranger's weapon, Rocky was surprised that there was no blood on the tip of the arrow. Even though he had known that the arrow had gone right into his head, and should have killed him and he had been expecting to see some blood, he was shocked to see there was none whatsoever.

_".....and it has not left any noticeable mark, of course having previous wounds upon your face that Sleep-walker has given you it is hard to tell. My guess on why you are still living...would have to be with the energy that is in this arrow. While it is intended to be damaging to those of evil...it is not lethal to a target that carries the same energy which created the arrow. If I'm making any sense to you." _

Rocky nodded, to show to the person that he had managed to make some sense out of what she had just said to him.

The Person turned from him, and went back to looking at the frozen scene before the two of them.

She stuck out her hand once more and the whole scene began to vanish like shadows, as the area became bright once more.

* * *

On the Count of Three, Kimberly had managed to overcome the shock of being in a battle against her friend. "Rocky" was serious about killing them all, Kimberly finally understood it. Of course, what she didn't really understand was why he had this sudden change of heart, especially when it seemed like just a day or so ago, it had seemed like he was on their side. He was their friend, and now? Now, he was their enemy.

Once Kimberly had managed to come to terms with her former friend now being her enemy, she found it easier to fight him. All the anger she felt at his betrayal, she had finally managed to channel it into her attacks.

When the words "Three" had left the Red Ranger's mouth, Kimberly leapt forward from where she was standing, with all her might; she swung the bow like a sword at Sleep-walker. At the same time he slashed at her with the Power-sword.

Both attacks hit their targets, as intended. A large shower of sparks flew from both Rangers' suits. Although neither could allow the minor sting of the weapon as it hit them to keep them stunned for too long, and quickly they brought themselves to continue their fight.

Kimberly threw her fist at "Rocky" before he took her arm and flipped her over sending her crashing into the ground.

As Sleep-walker approached Kimberly, she got back to her feet and kicked at him with a cart-wheel/kick, sending Sleep-walker stumbling back.

This angered Sleep-walker giving him all the more reason to step up his attack. With a roar, Sleep-walker leapt into the air, clearing the distance between him and the Pink Ranger.

Seeing the attack coming, Kimberly didn't have enough time to move. Before she knew it, a sharp pain hit her, right in the chest, the force of the attack sending her to the ground trying to catch her breath. As she got up, she barely had time to find "Rocky" in order to return a hit on him, before she was knocked down once more by several lightening fast kicks and punches.

Kimberly tried to regain her breath again, holding onto her right arm, where an attack from the Power-sword had sliced through her Ranger suit, a small trickle of blood was starting to run down her arm, and the exposed wound stung terribly, but Kimberly tried her best to ignore it.

She was just reaching a whole new state of rage toward "Rocky" and from the way that she was staring at Sleep-walker, the others knew that they were about to see her act as they had never seen her act before.

"What's the matter Pink Ranger, are you finally starting to realize that your feeble Ranger Powers, and fighting skills are no match when compared to mine?" 'Rocky' stated teasingly as he crossed his arms looking at the Pink Ranger.

"Rocky...Go to Hell!" Kimberly muttered darkly as she gripped the Power bow in her hands, in one quick motion she summoned an arrow to the bow, and shot it at Sleep-walker. The swiftness of this action caught Sleep-walker off guard temporarily.

Kimberly watched as "Rocky" fell to the ground, lying motionless. She watched for several minutes as he lay there, wondering if she had actually killed him or not. She prayed that he wasn't dead, and that possibly the arrow had changed him back to normal, by destroying all the evil that was in him at the moment. If it hadn't, and she had actually killed him, she wasn't sure that she would have been able to forgive herself. Even if she didn't quiet care for this whole situation and his attitude before this point, he was still her friend...and she couldn't bear to think of him as dead.

Slowly she approached his body, and placed her hand on his shoulder to check for any signs of life.

Kimberly quickly found that she had made a mistake in doing this, when she found herself struggling to get her arm free from Rocky's grasp.

A terror filled her heart when she looked down into the Red Ranger's eyes as he slowly got to his feet, his grasp not loosening upon her arm the slightest bit.

The eyes that were staring back at her from behind the shattered visor of the Red Ranger helmet were not the hazel eyes that had once belonged to Rocky. While the face that these eyes were on, that stared back at her was still the Red Ranger's face, the eyes were completely inhuman. These eyes that she saw looked similar to how Kimberly had always pictured a demon's eyes to look, pure red and glowing with an evil energy.

It wasn't just the eyes that terrified Kimberly, it was the fact that there wasn't even a scratch on Rocky's face, despite the fact that she had shot him, and shattered the visor of his helmet. In fact, the arrow, or any fragment of the arrow, was not there at all.

"You really thought that you could take me down that easily, Pink Ranger?" the red ranger asked in a growling voice as he looked down at the Pink Ranger.

The shot to the head, while Sleep-walker had absorbed it and had sent it toward the real Red Ranger in hopes that it would kill him, didn't provide any source of amusement for the monster. In fact, it had angered him enough to forget that he had agreed to hold back his power against Kimberly.

With an inhuman roar, Sleep-walker tossed Kimberly toward one of the mirrors. Once he had seen her crash into the mirror, and groan in pain as she lay on the ground, trying to shake off the pain and get back to her feet, Sleep-walker summoned up some of his energy into the power-sword, and in one powerful swing, released it at Kimberly, sending her crashing against the mirror once more.

She lay there, trying to get to her feet...her ranger suit torn in several places, partially matted with blood and dirt. Part of her helmet was smashed up, and the Power-bow lay several feet away from her.

This was it...it had to have been, Kimberly thought as she weakly reached for the Power-bow, finding that she didn't have the strength to even do this.

R-Rocky...what's gotten into you? You're...not even..._human_...any more, Kimberly thought as she looked up toward where "Rocky" stood. She could just see him standing there among the smoke that had risen during the battle. He was shaking with laughter.

The mirror behind her had cracked with the force that she had hit it with. This for the superstitious person would have meant seven years of bad luck. However, this shattered mirror proved to be lucky for Kimberly.

The minute that it had shattered, Kimberly looked up to see Billy standing there, dusting off pieces of glass from his Ranger suit. She could tell that he wasn't entirely sure how he had gotten free, but was glad to be free.

"Kimberly, just stay down and conserve your energy, it's my turn to face Rocky." The Blue Ranger stated as he looked over his shoulder to the injured Pink Ranger.

Sleep-walker began to laugh in amusement as his glowing red eyes looked toward the recently freed Blue Ranger.

"It's surprising that you are free from the Mirror, Blue Ranger. But, I figure that you might as well have been released sooner or later. I was beginning to tire of fighting the Pink Ranger...She didn't have much more strength, it would have been much too easy to defeat her..."

Billy's eyes narrowed behind the Blue Ranger helmet as he gripped the Power-lance in his hands. He knew that alone, he might not be strong enough to defeat "Rocky" but the least he could do, would be to fight him the best he could, and maybe get him to start to attack enough to shatter the other Mirrors and free the other Rangers, so that they could all team up and fight him together.

Sleep-walker cracked his knuckles together and readied himself to attack. The Blue-Ranger didn't stand a chance against him. Billy might be the brains of the Ranger team, but Sleep-walker was pretty sure that the Blue Ranger wouldn't be any match for his strength.

He just hoped that the Blue Ranger would last longer than the Pink Ranger would against him.

* * *

Alpha jumped backward as he received a shock from one of the control panels as he tried to find the problem in order to repair it and either make contact with the Rangers possible, or to at least establish a connection that would allow for teleportation.

So far, nothing was working, and Alpha was starting to lose hope.

"My sensors indicate that the disturbance in our communications and teleportation controls is coming from a device which the Red Ranger is in possession of. Unfortunately, I am afraid the only way for us to use teleportation to retrieve the Rangers, or even make contact with them would be for them to destroy the device." Zordon stated as he watched the duel take place.

Alpha put his hands on his head in despair. There had to be some way for them to shut down that device, but how could they when the controls that could help do any such thing like that in the command center were disabled?

"Aiyaiyayai! Zordon! I would have never guessed that the Rangers would be defeated at the hands of one of their own!! A terrible tragedy this is!"

"No, Alpha, the Rangers are not being defeated by one of their own. The Red Ranger that you see fighting against the Rangers is an imposter, named Sleep-walker. It is a spirit monster created by Beelzalea and Finster." Zordon stated as he watched the scene in the viewing globe.

"Approximately four days ago, Beelzalea sent down this monster to seize control over the Red Ranger's body. Since then he has been disguised as the Red Ranger, waiting for the opportunity to strike. I have been keeping a watch on this creature, scanning for any signs of the Real Red Ranger."

"According to the Bio-scan that I have been running over the Red Ranger, Rocky and Beelzalea's monster are sharing a physical body, although when Sleep-walker had invaded the Red-Ranger's mind, it created a separate dimension from which it can control Rocky's body. This dimension is where the Red Ranger is being held prisoner." Zordon continued to explain.

Alpha shook his head, in dismay. It had always troubled him when he knew that any one of the Rangers was in trouble, after all, besides Zordon, and a couple of the people back on the planet that he had been built on, the Rangers were really the only friends that the robot really had.

He knew that, the longer that Zordon watched the fight between the Sleep-walker monster and the Rangers, and trying to find out exactly what could be done to help the Red Ranger, the more troubled Zordon became as well.

When Zordon had first chosen Jason, Trini, Zack, Billy, and Kimberly to be the ones to fight against Rita, and protect the Earth using the Ranger-Power, Alpha had always wondered why he had decided to choose Teenagers of all the types of people on Earth.

Sure, teenagers had more stamina, and energy than an older adult had, but teenagers lacked the experience and wisdom that an adult had. Plus on top of that teenagers were emotionally unstable, and weren't used to having a major responsibility being placed in their hands.

Knowing this, Alpha had wondered why Zordon had decided to choose teenagers to protect the Earth. Of course, now seeing the situation, Alpha started to wonder if maybe Zordon was regretting his decision to place the responsibility of protecting the Earth in the hands of a bunch of teenagers, especially when now he was probably beginning to realize that by giving them the power-coins and giving them power, that he had turned their fate in the direction of sacrificing themselves to protect the planet from Rita.

But, once he had actually seen these Earthling Teenagers use the Ranger power, and come together as a team, overcoming all the odds and obstacles that had been set against them by their opponents, Alpha knew that this group of teenagers were special, more so than any other teenagers in the universe.

Seeing his Master, and his friend, beginning to doubt himself, made him wish that the Ranger's luck would turn around and all of them would prove to him that he had chosen right when he had decided to give them power. Just something that would show Zordon that he hadn't been wrong when he believed that they had something special that set them all apart from all the others that could have been chosen to inherit these powers.

* * *

The scene had finally changed around Rocky.

The area around him had changed into Billy's lab. Rocky wasn't sure about this memory, but somehow he felt he knew what this memory was. It was only when the memory actually started to play that he knew for certain.

It had taken place shortly after Rocky had become the Red Ranger. He had gone with Billy to his lab so that Billy could make an adjustment to his communicator, since it had been bothering him for quite some time.

The communicator had originally belonged to Jason and so the communicator was a bit too loose for him to wear. It kept trying to slip off his wrist, and he didn't quite like how it kept moving around on his wrist, as if it were going to fall off.

"So, Rocky. What do you think about living in Angel Grove? I bet it's a lot different than Stone Canyon huh?" Billy stated as he examined the communicator, trying to make conversation with Rocky as he tried to figure out where to start as far as making the adjustments to the communicator.

Rocky, in the memory ran his fingers through his hair, before shaking his head and sighing. "Yeah, really. I've only been here for a little while, I'm still getting used to it. But so far, this place seems pretty good. A little more exciting than Stone Canyon was...with all the monster attacks and all."

Billy chuckled slightly as he began to work on the device. "I bet attending half the sports events at the school is pretty difficult, especially when we're up against Stone Canyon."

With slight smirk Rocky nodded.

"Although, I'm a little curious. Why exactly did you, Adam, and Aisha all come to Angel Grove at the same time? I mean the probability of three people who know each other, like you guys know each other, coming to the same town at the same time is almost unlikely."

Rocky nodded, "Well, my mom's a fire-fighter, and with all the disasters that were reported, she heard that the Angel Grove Fire-Department was in need of people, so she quit the force in Stone-Canyon and joined the Angel Grove force, and my dad managed to get a job writing for the Angel Grove Newspaper."

"Aisha's mother is a lawyer and she got transferred here from one of the Law Firms here in Angel Grove, and her dad is an insurance Agent. When his company heard that his wife was going to be starting work here in Angel Grove in a few months, they decided it would be best to transfer him to the Angel Grove branch of the Company, so Aisha had been planning on moving away from Stone Canyon regardless."

"It was kind of a surprise to Aisha when she found out that my family was going to end up moving to Angel Grove with her family, but we were both kinda surprised when we found out that Adam's dad had gotten transferred over to Angel Grove, and that his mom had decided to quit her teaching job at the High school and start up her own Art Studio, which meant that he was coming to Angel Grove with us."

Rocky, the one not in the memory sighed as he watched the scene continue on. This was going to take awhile, he assumed, since to his memory it had been a good two hours before they had talked about anything other than how he, Adam, and Aisha had all ended up transferring to Angel Grove at the same time.

Almost as if something had been reading this thoughts the scene flashed briefly as it skipped forward.

Rocky, the one in the memory, was adjusting the communicator that Billy had just finished working with, on his wrist. He was looking down at the communicator rather silently.

"You know, Billy, I bet it's tough to be the smartest person on the Ranger team."

Billy looked up from the computer and raised an eyebrow at Rocky. He wasn't quite sure what Rocky was trying to get at by making this statement. It was actually a little bit of a surprise that Rocky was even saying this at all.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm just saying, whenever a problem arises that can't be handled by force, we always end up turning to you, because you're the smartest one in the group. I bet it gets pretty irritating. I mean in a lot of our situations we have to turn you almost immediately. I mean doesn't it seem like we're depending on you for all the answers, as if you were like the leader or something?" Rocky, the one in the memory, asked as he turned toward Billy.

With an uneasy chuckle, Billy adjusted his glasses and continued looking at the computer. "It doesn't bother me. Really. I like helping out...plus it doesn't seem to me like anyone is depending on me for the answers. As a member of the Ranger team, I feel that it is my job to collect data, and share the data of the situation with the others, and usually you guys come up with the answer based off the data." He explained.

With a sigh, Rocky looked over and began pacing the room. As he watched the scene, Rocky began to remember why he had asked this question. He had been feeling kinda bad about asking Billy for his help, because he had begun to feel that being a Ranger, especially the smartest Ranger, was a little bit too demanding of Billy's abilities, and that maybe it had been a little unfair of him to ask for his help, especially when he should have been doing all of this on his own.

Plus, he was thinking about exactly where he stood as far as his usefulness to the team.

There was a silence between Rocky and Billy for several minutes. Finally Billy got up from his computer and walked over to Rocky, putting his hand briefly on his friend's shoulder.

"...Rocky...your only asking this because you're worried about yourself, aren't you?"

The Rocky in the memory crossed his arms. "When you put it that way, it sounds like I'm being self-absorbed."

Billy nodded, trying to signal to Rocky that he understood what was going on, but not trying to say that it sounded like he was being selfish because of his concern.

"It's just that ever since I was chosen to be a Ranger, I sometimes wonder if like You, Kimberly, and Tommy are expecting me to be like Jason. You know, a strong leader, who almost is always serious about everything." Rocky explained.

There was another long moment of silence as Billy tried to figure out how to exactly say what he wanted to say in response to Rocky's explanation. After all, he had been taken by surprise when Rocky had even addressed that he had concerns about what other people thought of him and such. For all he had been aware of before this point, Rocky had been perfectly happy with everything, and was the type of person who didn't care what other people thought of him, or what expectations they had of him.

Rocky, watching the scene frowned. Looking back on it, he knew that he shouldn't care what other people had thought about him, or why he had even wondered this. Jason had been gone for a while, and Tommy had already been designated the official leader of the team, so if anything it was Tommy who was being compared to Jason, rather than Rocky himself.

"None of us are expecting you to be like Jason. I mean, you might be the Red Ranger, which true, we did associate with the position of leader for awhile, before Tommy showed up, and even for a little while before he came back as the White Ranger. But that doesn't mean that anyone who wears a certain color on the Ranger team is supposed to act a certain way."

Even though this had been said, Rocky remained silent, which prompted Billy to continue talking.

"I'm sure you've heard the whole saying that 'everyone is unique' and that's kinda the situation with the Rangers. Even though Jason was a serious person and we looked to him as the leader, because he happened to be a little bit more fearless than the rest of us, who just happened to end up with the Red Ranger Power, It doesn't mean that because you are the Red Ranger that you are expected to be just like Jason."

"I mean, you know, I'm the Blue Ranger, and as you put it, 'the smart one' in the group, and you're the Red Ranger, and your personality kinda leads you to be the....you know...Clown of the group, But let's say, that sometime in the future, we get new powers...because let's just say something happens to the powers that we've got now, and a couple of color changes had to be made, and you ended up as the Blue Ranger. No one would be expecting you to be 'the smart one' because you're the Blue Ranger...and No one would be expecting me to suddenly become 'the funny one'...since it's just not our personalities."

Rocky nodded, he was starting to get the picture, although the example situation that Billy had set up, seemed kinda difficult to imagine. Him, as a Blue Ranger? He just couldn't picture that!

"Besides, let's face it, you're nothing like Jason, in fact you're almost the complete opposite...and I don't think that there is any chance that you can ever be like Jason. I mean, don't get me wrong, and I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm just saying that no one is expecting you to be like Jason....so you shouldn't try to be like Jason."

With a nod, the Rocky in the memory told Billy that he understood what he was saying, and that he didn't take any offence to what had been said. Not too soon afterward, he apologized to Billy for even having had wondered what anyone had thought about him.

Billy shrugged and told him that it was nothing and that if he needed someone to talk to about things like that, or anything all that he'd be willing to listen. With this the scene froze.

"...._Did you really understand what the wolf had told you?" _

_"_Of course. He was saying that no one was expecting me to be like Jason. Just because I had been chosen to fill Jason's role as the Red Ranger, didn't mean that I was expected to be like Jason. I wasn't like Jason at all, and there was nothing wrong with that."

_"An Ape is always an Ape, and should always be an Ape. It would be unnatural for it to start acting like a Hawk."_

To this, Rocky raised an eyebrow, while he vaguely understood what was being said. That was the weirdest way of putting something that could otherwise be simply said. Although he was starting to wonder what was up with this woman always referring to the Rangers by their Animal-spirits.

"_An Ape does not have wings like a Hawk...nor is he nearly as clever...and his eye-sight is inferior to the Hawk, as well as the Hawk is much more fierce. The Ape, as compared to the Hawk, is more of a playful species...and is not likely to exhibit anger and become aggressive or defensive with only a slight threat." _

"So, basically what you're saying is the same thing that Billy told me. I should just be myself. I'm not like Jason...because while Jason is a little bit smarter, and more observant than me, and more of a leader than I am, I'm more laid back about things." Rocky stated.

The hooded person nodded.

I should always be myself...Rocky thought as he closed his eyes. So, I am an Ape. Usually friendly, laid back, not the brightest person in the world...but not the dumbest either. Calm, except when, my friends are threatened.

.....When there is a major threat...the Ape becomes violent, aggressive, and dangerous. Anything to protect itself and others, Rocky thought as he felt his heart starting to fill with anger again. He could feel that determination that had been there beginning to accumulate.

An Ape will overcome any obstacles that stand in its way...

Rocky could feel something strike his right arm, tearing apart the vines that had been wrapped around it for the past few days. When he had felt this happen, he saw a blue flash of light in his eyes. Upon opening his eyes he saw that the vines that had been around his left arm had been ripped apart, and fell to the ground vanishing into the darkness, gone forever.

"What the..." Rocky began in confusion, seeing how one of his arms was free from the tangled mess of vines. He didn't even bother to continue this sentence, because the mere shock had stunned him and put him in a deep enough confusion that he quickly found that it wasn't that he wasn't bothering to finish the statement, but rather that he found himself with the inability to do so.

_"There are only a few of the Power Weapons that could produce such a clean-cut, with only one strike. However, only one would produce a blue-light. The Power Lance, wielded by the Blue Ranger_." The hooded person stated as they turned to look at him.

Rocky nodded, Sleep-walker had absorbed another attack, which while the Red Ranger was sure that Sleep-walker had the feeling that the arrow that he had absorbed and directed at him, had killed him, he wasn't so sure if Sleep-walker was even aware of this incident, or had even intended for the Power Lance to partially free him.

Before Rocky could think on this anymore, or even rejoice over the fact that he was partially free, the scene before him disappeared into a blinding white-light.

* * *

She was already late getting home. Her mother was going to kill her! This was the third time that she had been late getting home from the Youth Center in a row. It was already starting to get dark outside, and this area wasn't exactly the best of streets to be caught on, but it was a short-cut, and since she was already running late, she knew that she had to cut through the construction site.

It wasn't exactly like she could help it, she was a member the Angel Grove Music Society, and they had a fundraiser coming up, which meant daily meetings at the Youth Center so that they could get everything organized before the day of the fundraiser, and it meant that sometimes those meetings would have to run a little late.

She smiled slightly to herself before she yawned. The fundraiser was going to be great. She really hoped that it would bring in some money for the organization. Almost everything was in order, except of course actually making the food that they had planned on serving and decorating the Youth Center up for the event.

Looking over her shoulder, back toward the Youth Center she bit her lip. Aisha and Katherine weren't there today, and they hardly ever missed a meeting. She would probably have to call them after she got home and see what had come up, and inform them of the decision that the group had made as far as the fundraiser was concerned.

Whatever had kept Aisha and Katherine from coming to the meeting today, she hoped that it wasn't anything serious. Maybe they just had another meeting that day, and forgot to tell them that they weren't going to be able to make it to this meeting. After all, both Aisha and Katherine were in quiet a number of other clubs so it was a likely story.

With a small smile, she continued towards her home. She couldn't wait for the fundraiser!

As she rounded the corner to take a short-cut through an alleyway, she shivered slightly. It was really dark down this alley, even though the sun had yet to go down entirely.

Stepping foot in the alley-way her breathing started to become quick and shallow, as her heart-rated increased. There was no telling what kind of creeps were lurking in the shadows of this alley-way.

It didn't take long for her paranoia to kick in, and soon she found that even the slightest noise, like cats digging through the garbage cans seemed to be amplified and put her on edge. The last thing that she needed was to be mugged in this alley-way and have to explain things to the Police, and her parents.

She couldn't help but feel like she was being followed however, even though the alleyway seemed to be totally deserted. Something was watching her; she could feel their eyes upon her. Their eyes seemed to produce heat, which was warming up the back of her neck as she walked down the alley-way.

Glancing behind her, she started to look for any signs that there was anyone following her.

Of course, adverting her attention from what was ahead of her, caused her to be caught off-guard. That was until she had run right into a group of people, blocking the passage out of the alley-way.

They didn't seem like very pleasant people, and she just knew that they were looking for trouble, and it didn't look like they were going to leave without a fight.

Great, exactly what she didn't want.

* * *

Billy had managed to only be hit by a few of Sleep-walker's attacks, in the course of at least five to ten minutes of the battle, which pleased Sleep-walker because the Blue Ranger was lasting longer than the Pink Ranger had.

As Billy fended off Sleep-walker with the Power Lance once more, He tried to catch his breath temporarily. He was beginning to become exhausted, and none of the mirrors that contained his friends had even cracked in the slightest.

Billy took note of "Rocky"'s frequency of attacks and after doing some quick calculations in his head, he soon came to the conclusion that whatever this creature that Rocky had become, it certainly wasn't human. It had at least twice the speed that Rocky normally possessed, which seemed to be comparable to the agility of both the Pink and Blue Rangers, and that while he was morphed.

Plus it seemed like this "Rocky" had a greater stamina than any normal human. Since had just taken out one Ranger and from the looks of things was going to end up taking out Billy himself, and while he had broken out into a sweat, it didn't look like he was showing any signs of exhaustion, despite the fact that he was injured.

In his observation, Billy was sent crashing into one of the mirrors; he had been caught off-guard, and had been hit by the Power sword with a force that had knocked the breath out of him.

"It would benefit you not to do calculations in your head, about your probabilities of defeat, since defeat is inevitable." Sleep-walker stated as he launched a beam of energy at Billy, who managed to duck out of the way just in enough time.

Looking over his shoulder, Billy could see where Kimberly was still laying injured on the ground. Truthfully this was no place for her to be. It was too dangerous for her. After all there was no telling that somewhere in the duel between him and Rocky, that she couldn't end up getting hurt worse, even dead.

If only he could re-establish the connection to the Command Center, then she could possibly teleport out of there and to safety. From what he knew, there was a device that was controlling the interference, and if only he could disable it, then they might be a little bit more of an advantage, being able to escape to the command center, so they could regroup and restore their energy...and possibly figure out how to get Rocky back to normal.

A quick flash of thought went through his mind. Rocky was carrying the device! He had to have been. Billy remembered when Rocky had shown up that he had been looking at the screen on the MPVG that was detecting the device, and it had shown the device moving...and it had stopped just seconds before Rocky had basically taken them hostage at gun-point.

With a loud clash, the Power-Lance became interlocked in a struggle for control against the Power-sword as Rocky had tried to bring the sword down on the Blue-Ranger's head. For several minutes, the battle almost came to a complete halt, as Billy and Sleep-walker focused the force into their weapons, in hope as to over-power the other and cause him to fall backwards, and give one of them the advantage to attack.

Billy managed to get a glimpse of both of Rocky's arms while he was trying to push Rocky away from him. He could see the two devices, one on Rocky's right arm, and one on Rocky's left arm.

The one upon Rocky's right arm, Billy noticed, was one of his own creations. A device that he had created a long time ago, a device that he had made just shortly after he had begun his Ranger Service. It had once belonged to Jason, which Billy could clearly tell, because he could see where he had to readjust the arm-band that held the device on to his wrist, because Jason, being slightly more muscular than Rocky himself was.

Of course the left wrist had a device that Billy did not recognize. It was much like the communicator in design, but it seemed to have been modified from the original design. He guessed that this had to have been the device that was jamming the communicator signal from reaching the command center. Rocky must have made careful observation of the communicator in order to base the frame-works of this device off of, Billy thought, and by using the parts that he had stolen from his lab, he had managed to modify the device to block signals.

If only he could destroy it...

As he managed to free-himself from his struggle against Rocky he summoned some of his power into the power Lance, causing it to glow a bright and vibrant blue, with one powerful swing he managed to hit the device, he watched at Rocky recoiled in pain as the device shattered upon his arm.

He noticed something was wrong the minute that "Rocky" let go of his left wrist. It appeared to Billy that Rocky's left arm had stopped functioning entirely, and now just hung limply at his side. Something that Rocky did not seem too pleased with, but made Billy grateful that he had managed to put enough force in his attack that he had given the rangers a chance to get out or at least, hinder Rocky's increased power a slight bit.

"A lucky strike Blue Ranger...you have severed my control over this arm. Although, I guarantee you that you will not be so lucky in the future." Sleep-walker stated as he swung the Power-sword with one hand toward Billy, releasing a blast of Energy, which Billy quickly dodged.

The force of the blast shattered another Mirror, much to Billy's relief. From this mirror, Kat emerged, cracking her knuckles together, ready to fight.

"Kimberly, I destroyed the device that was blocking the signal to the command center. See if you can get out of here." Billy stated as he looked toward Kimberly who was leaning up against one of the mirrors clutching the power-bow in her hands.

Shaking her head, Kimberly tried to move to stand up and rejoin the battle. She wasn't going anywhere without her friends. If she left the area now, then Rocky might end up killing her friends, and if she just left them...then she might not be able to forgive herself if they died.

With a frown, from behind his helmet, Billy looked toward Kat, telling her that she needed to try to hold Sleep-walker off while he protected Kimberly.

Kat nodded and twirled the Dragon-flute dagger in her hand before rushing at Sleep-walker.

"Finally we will be able to see which one is more beautiful when they are clinging on to the last thread of their life, you or the Pink Ranger." Sleep-walker laughed as he dodged out of the way of her attack.

* * *

Rocky took a deep breath as the scene once more cleared. He was still shocked over the fact that he was partially free, but now he was starting to try to figure out what memory he was about to start watching.

This time, he was at the Youth Center with Kat, helping her fill out paper-work. Rocky recognized this scene from where he had helped her register for school. So that meant that Kimberly had already been in Florida for a couple of weeks.

Kat and he had been waiting for the others, and Kat was still filling out some of the paper-work that she had to turn in before she could start school in the fall

"Are you guys really alright with the fact that I was working for Rita and Zedd. I mean, you trust me right? "Kat asked as she finished signing her name on one of the forms in front of her, and flipped her hair.

Rocky smiled as he set down the soda that he had been drinking on the table. Honestly he found Kat to be a very beautiful, so it made it a little bit difficult to strike up a conversation with her immediately, but eventually Rocky soon found the words.

"Of course, we trust you. We've dealt with Rita's magic before. Some us more than others. Tommy used to be evil, so I've heard; back when he was the Green Ranger...and you see that we trust him enough to be our leader. But you had a really good heart, which is why you're still not under the spell. So, we trust you."

Kat smiled kindly, "Thanks. I'm glad to hear that." She stated, beginning to blush terribly by the end of her sentence.

With a small laugh, Rocky continued, "Besides, if we didn't trust you, first of all, I doubted that Zordon would have let you go around knowing who we were. I'm sure he would have like erased your memory or something. Also, Kimberly would never have decided to let you to take her role."

"So, Anyhow. I'm really excited about starting school here soon. I hope it's as good as School in my home-town in Australia was."

"Oh, well, I don't know how good your old-school was, but Angel Grove has a pretty good school. The teachers are pretty good, Especially Ms. Applebee, she's a really nice teacher, but can be kinda strict at times." Rocky stated as he looked at one of the Papers that Kat has set in a small stack next to her

He looked over the information, unintentionally trying to find out a little bit more about Kat.

It took a second for Rocky to notice that Kat had left out part of her information on this sheet. Looking over at her, he gave a slight smile before handing the paper to her.

"Kat?"

Kat looked up at Rocky, as if she were expecting him to say something, like 'would you like to go out on a date with me?' or something like that, and was pretty much trying to work out a solution on how to turn him down without seeming really rude. After all, she liked him...but just as a friend.

After all, she had noticed that he was a little difficulty finding the words to say to her. She had seen a lot of boys act the same way back in Australia, and even some of the guys that she had met around here in Angel Grove, and usually whenever they would pretend to be preoccupied by something, for a few minutes, before breaking the silence by getting her attention by saying her name in question form, it usually meant they were about to ask her out on a date.

Usually, she had to explain to all the guys who had asked her that, that she just wasn't ready to start dating. Not just yet anyhow. Plus, half the guys who even asked her this, were only asking because they thought she was so pretty, and they just wanted to go out with a pretty girl, and didn't give a care about finding out more about what type of person she was.

It was, going to be pretty awkward though, once she turned him down. After all, she could avoid the other guys who had asked her out, but Rocky....well he was friends with Aisha and the others, and so was Kat, so if they trying to hang out with their friends they would end up having to see each other. On top of that, they were in a sense, co-workers as Rangers, so they definitely would be running into each other a lot.

"You forgot to put down your birthday on this form."

With a mental sigh of relief, Kat took the form and gave Rocky a smile. "Oh! I didn't notice! Thanks!"

With this the scene paused again.

Rocky raised an eyebrow. That scene didn't seem to be very significant. He was just making polite conversation with Kat, trying to make her feel comfortable about having transferred schools, and even offering to help her make friends. It's not like it was anything special.

"_...Even though the Turtle was free from her spell, She wanted to know if you trusted her. Knowing that you believed that she had broke out of Rita and Zedd's spell, because of her good spirit, and knowing that you did like having her on the team made her feel much more comfortable about being a Power Ranger." _

Rocky looked over, It was nothing really, he knew how awkward it must have been for Katherine, to have started out working for Rita and Zedd, trying to kill them, and now working on the same team with them. Situations like that were bound to have been making her feel uncomfortable.

"_Even though you barely knew her, you tried to make her feel as comfortable as possible about everything, being a Ranger and all, and why was that?" _

He was surprised that he didn't actually have any reasonable answer for this. That was the thing, he didn't know why. Actually, he was pretty sure that it was something to do with his personality as far as making potential friends. After all, with all of his friends that he made, whenever he made friends with them he had always tried to strike up the friendship by just a little bit of small-talk and trying to make them feel comfortable about talking to him.

"_Of course, you cannot answer such a question. Even I do not have the answer to that. I can only make the assumption that it has to do with your personality. Possibly the reason why when things become a little too serious you decide to try to lighten the mood, that way everyone is much more comfortable about the situation. Even though they might not seem like, and even though you may not actually be calm yourself, _your _team-mates have a sense of security that maybe this, situation, maybe...this monster attack, or this scheme of Rita and Zedd's is not the one that might ultimately end the Power-Rangers." _

So, he provided a boost of morale, to the Rangers, through his joking.

"Great. So basically...I'm a cheerleader..."

With a slight laugh the hooded person nodded, signaling to Rocky that that was basically what she was saying.

Rocky sighed as he looked at the frozen scene. He wasn't sure what was going on in the battle between Sleep-walker and the others, but he was sure what his friends really probably needed right now was a little bit of a cheering up. Things were probably getting way too dark for them, and things had to have been looking pretty bad. He knew they were still holding in there, but...for how much longer? Sleep-walker was already facing at least three people out of the six that had been brought there.

Actually, what they needed right now, was a miracle.

"_They're all fighting so hard.....refusing to give up. Even though, they still believe that it is you who is facing them rather than Sleep-walker. You should consider yourself lucky to have friends that will put themselves through hell, and risk killing you, just to save you. Even though they probably could, none of them are going to leave you behind.._."

Rocky heaved a deep sigh. They shouldn't have to be putting themselves through this kind of torture, just to save him. Sure it wouldn't hurt if they could save him in some way or another, but he wished that they didn't have to risk their own lives just to do so.

"_So, you'd rather them risk killing you...rather than having them risk their lives?"_

Rocky nodded. Honestly he didn't particularly care much about his own life at this point. Yeah, he knew that it would be a great upset to his parents and friends if he were to die, but like he had said a long time ago, back before Adam had left to go out into the desert, and this whole mess had started, One death on a group of people's minds is a lot better to deal with than a group of people's deaths on one person's mind.

If all of his friends were to die, he probably wouldn't be able to deal with it. After all, he was already having a little bit of a hard time knowing that Adam was dead, he was pretty sure that having difficulty of dealing with that death multiplied times six would be a little bit too much.

Besides, he thought, they probably wouldn't care if he died...since they still believed that he had betrayed him.

"_No, that's not true, Rocky, don't think like that..."_

She was right, that wasn't any way that he should even be thinking. His friends weren't fighting against him because they believed he betrayed him, although it probably didn't hurt that they thought that he had betrayed them, since it probably gave them a little bit motivation not to hold back when fighting against Sleep-walker.

They were fighting, and risking their lives and risking killing him, because they believed that he was still himself, he was still somewhere there inside the heart of the monster that they believed he had become that they were willing to risk their own lives and his, because they believed there was a chance to bring him back.

That, and they didn't have any choice, if Sleep-walker wanted to fight them, he was going to fight them. Even though, now there was the chance that they could get out of there and save themselves, they weren't going to take it. They weren't leaving until they all could leave together.

With a small smile, Rocky looked over at his free arm, He really was lucky to have friends like them. Willing to keep fighting for something that seemed pretty difficult to achieve, which in this case was a victory in which they all would be able to return home and laugh about it later.

A green flash came to Rocky's eyes, causing the scene before him to be distorted and vanish into a blinding white light. He could feel a searing heat on his right leg. The vines, much like they had with his left arm had disintegrated.

"_Hm. Interesting. These vines seemed to have been shattered by...Sleep-walker's own energy. The enchanted tune of the Dragon dagger must have taken Sleep-walker's energy and sent it back at him..."_

So, now Rocky was half-way free from the vines. If this kept up, it would only be a matter of time before he might possibly be able to become entirely free from the vines. When, and if that happened, even though he was seriously injured from the previous days of torture, He could help out the Rangers, by distracting Sleep-walker, and allowing the others to attack while Sleep-walker's attention was on him.

* * *

Kat grunted as she threw some force into a kick that she attempted to land on "Rocky's" chest. Although, her attempt was unsuccessful. Sleep-walker immediately took hold of Kat's foot and threw her away from him, causing her to crash to the ground.

Sleep-walker yawned as he watched Kat try to get to her feet. All this fighting was making him bored. After hours of fighting, and all the rangers had managed to do, was severe the control that he had over Rocky's left arm. It amused him, though to see the Rangers even making attempts to go into battle against him, even though they already knew from watching the friend who had went into battle before they did, that they didn't stand a chance against him.

He threw a punch at Green Ranger, sending her back down to the ground. He let out a laugh as he started kicking her in the side. It was amusing to see the Green Ranger down on the ground, whimpering in pain as his boots made contact with her side once more.

With a grunt, he was able to put enough force into his kick to send Kat sliding across the floor, allowing her to catch her breath and get back to her feet, gripping her side, coughing and gritting her teeth in pain as she reached for the dragon dagger at her side, her hands shaking all the while.

Sleep-walker laughed as he summoned energy to his good-arm, and into the Power-Sword. He released three blasts of energy at her in rapid succession.

Kat dodged out of the way of two of the energy blasts, only to roll right in the path of the third. Quickly, she pulled out the dragon-dagger/flute and brought it to the lips of the helmet.

Concentrating, she quickly played a few notes on the weapon. All the while she kept her thoughts focused on the blast of energy that was coming towards her. She wasn't sure what was going to happen by playing the dagger-flute, since she hadn't been the Green Ranger long enough to know what her weapon was capable of.

She hoped for a force-field or something that would protect her from the blast of energy that was heading her way.

After a few seconds of playing the weapon, and not getting hit by the blast, she slowly opened her eyes, wondering if the blast had shattered against some sort of force-field or what, since it didn't seem to be coming towards her anymore.

When she caught sight of the energy blast she found that it was actually frozen a few inches away from her, as if it had stopped to listen to her playing the flute, and was enchanted by the melody. It was almost as if she were some Siren and it were some person enchanted by the melody.

Actually it seemed as if time were frozen by this melody, she noticed. Two of the mirrors were obscured by a frozen explosion, just behind them Kat could see Trini and Zack shielding their eyes against the fire and shattered glass. Billy was kneeling next to Kimberly, watching the whole scene. Even Rocky seemed to be frozen, in mid-motion.

She wondered for a few seconds if time had actually stopped because of the music that had come from her weapon, or if all of this was happening so fast that she just felt like things were moving in slow motion.

If it is the dragon flute that's keeping this thing from hitting me, Kat thought as she continued playing, then maybe I can command it to hit Rocky. Let's see how much he likes his own power getting thrown back at him.

As she continued to play she closed her eyes again, trying to focus her thoughts into the frozen energy blast.

C'mon just turn around and go back! Just turn around and hit Rocky!! C'mon! Kat thought again and again as she continued to play.

It took a few seconds, but soon she heard the roar of the battle pick up again. The noise of the explosion reached her ears, and she felt some of the glass from the mirror graze her arm. As she opened her eyes she saw "Rocky" collapse to one knee, his left arm hanging limply at his side.

Trini and Zack both lined up beside Kat with their weapons drawn.

Rocky had started to breath heavily. His glowing red eyes seemed to show signs of temporary shock. Quickly that shock melted away into anger, as he got to his feet. His right leg seemed to be dragging on the ground, almost as if it were broken.

"...That was a clever trick Green Ranger. Using the Dragon Flute to enchant some of my own energy, and send it back at me....I would applaud you for your remarkable accomplishment of destroying my right leg, which indeed will hinder my physical attacks greatly, but...as you can see from the accomplishment of your fellow Blue Ranger...I find that I've only got control over half this body right now." He stated darkly as he limped toward them.

Trini gripped the Power-Tonfa tighter in her hands. "I guess it's lucky that Rocky's got a broken arm and leg...We'll only be dealing with half of him now."

Zack fell into a defensive stance on the other side of Kat, looking at Rocky with a smirk. "Good, he'll only have half the power, so basically this should be just like fighting Rocky..." He joked. Although the joke was highly inappropriate for the circumstance.

* * *

The guys that she had run into seemed to be rather weird. They were dressed from head to foot in gray, and they didn't seem to have any features on their faces that would even qualify them as human. If this didn't make them weird and creepy enough, the entire time that they were standing there all they did was make a weird mumbling noise.

As she made the attempt to pass by them, the creatures just kept getting in her way, not even making the attempt to move. Whatever these things were she was starting to get annoyed with them quickly. All she wanted to do was get home, and these guys were getting in her face as if they were looking for a fight.

Of course! That's what they were looking for! These guys...she had heard of them before. There were fliers all over town advising that the best thing to do if you ran into these guys was to get away as fast as you could. Putty, she remembered them being called. They usually showed up at random times, and tried to terrorize people in Angel Grove. Of course, it had been ages since she had last heard of these guys actually being spotted in Angel Grove.

Well, whatever the case, the fliers advised that these creatures should be handled by the Power Rangers.

As she turned around to make a retreat back down the alley-way she quickly realized that escape wasn't exactly an option in this situation. More Putty had appeared, and were blocking her path; all of them looked ready to fight.

What she really needed now was for the Power Rangers to show up.

....they'll be here soon...I'm sure...she thought uneasily as she looked around at the Putty. She just had to wait until then.

She waited for several minutes, and with each passing second she began to lose hope that she was going to be rescued by the Power Rangers. Something told her that the Rangers had some other business that they were attending to, and couldn't exactly make it there to save her.

Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself down. Okay, well, it looks like I'm just going to have to take these guys on myself. I'm sure that I can do it...I mean, how tough can they be? She thought as she looked around at the group of Putty.

It's not like the Power Rangers had shown up every single time that these guys had terrorized people. After all, she thought she overheard one of Aisha's friends talking with her a long time ago at the Youth Center, about how they had gotten attacked in the park by Putty; apparently the attack had happened not too soon before they had shown up. From what she had heard, before his attention had been called elsewhere, this guy and two of Aisha's friends had taken care of the Putty on their own.

So, that proved that these guys could be taken out by people other than the Power Rangers. So, even though she hadn't had much experience in fighting, she knew she was in trouble, and decided that the least that she could do was to try to take these guys out on her own.

Charging at one of the Putty, she threw a punch at it. The Punch didn't seem to be very effective, but provoked the Putty to begin attacking. As one threw a punch at her, she grabbed its wrists and brought her foot up to kick the clay creature in the chest.

Her foot landed right on the "Z" shape emblem on the chest, causing the Putty to pull away from her and fall down on the ground twitching until it shattered into a ton of pieces and evaporated.

Looking down at the spot where the Putty had been, she was surprised by what she had just seen. All she had done was hit the "Z"...and it went down almost instantly. So, that was the secret to defeating these guys? How pathetic! An Obvious weak-spot...who ever had designed these creatures, wasn't the brightest person, to give these guys such an easy to hit weak-spot.

Well, at least she knew what she had to do. She cracked her knuckles and looked around threateningly to the Putty, as if to say, you can't terrorize me anymore, I know your weak-spot. Now, who wants to get hurt?

Some of the Putty had begun to back away knowing that she had figured out the weak spot, while others had not heeded the threatening look and had already started coming at her.

Two Putty came at her from behind, she spun around in enough time to catch one of the Putty's arms as his fist was about to come down on her, She managed to trip him and flip him over her knee, before back kicking another Putty.

Both of the Putty went down and crumbled into pieces. Which didn't stop her from fighting the rest of the group.

One putty that charged at her managed to land a punch on her face which caused her to stumble towards another one. Which she unintentionally ran her elbow into, causing it to crumble to pieces.

After several minutes of fighting the Putty, it looked like she was pretty much winning the battle. No matter how many Putty there were she was pretty sure that she could take them.

She knew it wasn't like her at all to be so energetic about things like fighting; in fact she really didn't like fighting at all. She much rather just talk out any issues that she had rather than resort to violence.

So, why was she so pumped up about taking down these Putty?

It made her feel kind of exhilarated. Almost like the feeling she felt that she would probably be feeling if she had ever become a Power Ranger, even though _that _was about as likely, (in her opinion) as Pigs sprouting wings and flying.

Just as she was really getting into fighting the Putty, they suddenly disappeared, leaving her alone in the deserted darkening alleyway.

Looking around, she was starting to wonder where they Putty had vanished off to. That was until she heard a low clapping from behind her.

"Congratulations Ms. Sloane...you've passed the test."

* * *

Zedd, Rita, Rito, Minerva and all of the inhabitants, were watching the scene between the Rangers and Sleep-walker in the main-chamber of the Castle, projected before them by a device that Finster had been working on.

There was a rather cheerful mood floating around the Castle, over the fight that they saw.

The Rangers were being beaten terribly, each one falling like flies at Sleep-walker's hands. Sure, some of the Rangers were still standing, but it was obvious that they probably wouldn't last too much longer.

"Zeddie! That was a Completely Fiendish move, making Sleep-walker attack those Rangers, at the time you did! I think for once you might have actually done something right!!" Rita screeched joyfully as she clapped her hands together, as she watched the Green Ranger get hit with the Power-sword.

With a laugh, Zedd only wished that Beelzalea was around here to hear all the things that were being said. He was sure that any complement he had received for his decision to send Sleep-walker into to battle against the Rangers instead of having him sit around and continue to just watch the Rangers would just piss her off.

Actually, come to think of it. He hadn't seen Beelzalea at all since yesterday. Where had she gone off to?

Not that it really mattered to him after all. Even if she was off trying to help the Rangers in some way or another, her plans were going to fail.

* * *

As the light cleared once more, Rocky quickly found himself in a familiar memory. It was at the Youth Center, and judging from the windows it was pretty late in the evening. Everyone was crowded around the Youth Center. It seemed as if a last minute party had been arranged.

It took Rocky a few minutes to remember why the Youth Center looked like this, but soon when he caught sight of Jason, Trini, and Zack standing with him, Adam, and Aisha out in the hallway.

This was a memory from the day right before Jason, Trini, and Zack had left and right before He, Aisha, and Adam were about to start School in Angel Grove and Ranger Service.

"So, what did you need to tell us? You said it was kinda important." Adam asked in a whisper as the six of them stood out in the hallway.

Zack, Jason, and Trini, started to look to one another, not quite sure where to begin on telling them the news that they had to give to them.

They had been wanting to first wanting to welcome them to Angel Grove, since they had heard that all three of them were in the process of moving from Stone Canyon to Angel Grove, and had already told everyone that they were going to be starting School with all of them the next day.

Aside from that, they had also wanted to tell them that they had been chosen to replace them since they were going off to the Peace-conference.

"Well, we talked to Zordon....and Alpha...." Jason began crossing his arms and giving them a slight smile.

"...and they said that we had some things that we had to get in order before we left." Trini added.

"We completely agree with what they said, so like things don't get too crazy for Tommy, Billy, and Kimberly...." Zack continued with a huge smirk starting to appear on his face as he looked at the three teenagers who were standing in front of him with confused looks on their faces.

Jason smiled and looked at Trini and Zack, who returned the smile. All three of them nodded.

"...and after a lot of thought...We've finally reached a decision." He added.

Trini, unable to hold back the news that they had to tell them, clasped her hands together, and let out an excited laugh, rocking back and forth on her feet for a few seconds.

This action seemed to confuse the three Stone-Canyon teens more than they had been a few moments ago. Obviously something they had decided was really good news that they couldn't wait to tell, but didn't want to ruin the surprise immediately by just coming out and telling them.

"Congratulations you guys!! You're going to be Power Rangers!!" Zack stated cheerfully, telling them the good news before Trini could open her mouth to tell them, like she was so anxious to do.

Rocky watched as his jaw fell open, in shock about what he had just heard. Back then, he would have never dreamed that he would have been chosen to help protect Angel Grove, and the world, from things like Monsters and aliens. He watched as he just stared at Jason, Trini, and Zack in total disbelief.

All three of them were nodding to show them that it was true; the three of them, and Zordon had decided that the three of them would be the best to fill the roles of the Red, Black, and Yellow Rangers. Even though nodding wasn't even necessary, they could tell from the look in their eyes that they were telling the truth and this wasn't some elaborate joke that they were playing on them, for laughs.

"Just....Don't tell the others. We really wanna surprise them tomorrow when we all go talk to Zordon. He said he wanted us all to meet tomorrow. Some important business to take care of before we actually go through with the Power Transfer." Zack stated put his hand on Adam's shoulder, giving him a smile. Adam had pretty much been left speechless at the news, and was still just staring blankly as he tried to let the idea of actually going to be a Power-Ranger sink into his mind.

After the conversation went on for a little while longer, Adam and Aisha both followed Jason back into the other Room, where everyone else was, so that they could get something to drink. (Aisha was practically bouncing with excitement, that Rocky wasn't so sure that it was a good idea for her to be going to get anything that might have Caffeine in it, since that mixed with her current excitement might have caused her heart to explode. Adam on the other hand, looked like he could really go for something to drink. Even though, he had never admitted it and tried to mask it, Rocky could tell that the moment that Adam had been told that he was going to be a Power Ranger that he had started having an attack of low self-esteem.)

Trini and Zack lingered around in the hallway with Rocky for a while after the three of them had left.

"Well, you're gonna be the new Red Ranger soon. I bet you're pretty excited huh?" Trini said/asked nicely.

Rocky, in the memory, gave a small nod, although he wasn't being entirely honest. Sure, his heart was pounding out of excitement, and his mind was racing at the thought of getting to be a Power Ranger, but there was something else. They had told them, that each one of them individually, so did that mean that Jason had found him a worthy replacement...and if so...why?

He could have easily have been the one to inherit the Black Ranger Power, instead of Adam. After all, Zack was a lot like him, and not very much like Adam. Rocky had always figured that they would have chosen someone like them to fill their roles in the team.

Jason would have been more likely to choose someone like Aisha to be the Red Ranger. (As odd of a mental image that created.) She was brave, fearless, and rather powerful when it came to fighting. She had the qualities that would allow her to be the leader, if there was ever any problem and Tommy was unable to lead.

"Jason should have chosen Aisha...." He caught himself muttering to the two of them.

Ack! Listen to me, I sounds like I had the self-confidence problem, instead of Adam! Rocky thought as he watched himself say this.

Trini crossed her arms and Zack threw his head back and let out a laugh, as if they thought he was making a joke about the whole situation. Even though at the time he wasn't.

Putting her hand on his shoulder Trini gave Rocky a kind, gentle, and reassuring smile that there had been no mistake in the choice that Jason had made.

"You might this kind of hard to believe, but Jason's decision actually made it a lot easier for us to make up our minds."

Zack nodded in agreement. "When we heard that we were going to have to transfer our powers, we weren't even sure who to pick."

Rocky raised an eyebrow; he found it rather difficult to believe that they had made their decision to choose who the new Red, Yellow, and Black Rangers were going to be based solely upon Jason's decision to choose him.

"The minute that Jason heard that he was going to have to give his power to someone, he stepped forward toward Zordon was all like 'I want to give the Red Ranger Power to Rocky...' and after that, Zack and I knew who to choose as our replacements. I mean, sure we were going to choose you guys anyhow...but it helped us decide who we should give what Ranger Power to."

Hearing this made Rocky feel a lot better. Although, Rocky--not in the memory---began to wonder something. Why? Why had Jason decided to choose him to be the Red Ranger? After all, they both knew that the Red Ranger, ever since the White Ranger had shown up, was basically the second in command, and would have to be counted on to fill the role of leader if anything had ever happened to Tommy.

Jason had known Rocky long enough to know that he just didn't have the capability to take up the responsibility of being a leader. So, why did he pick him over, all the other people that he knew, who in Rocky's opinion were probably a lot more qualified, to be the Red Ranger?

_"Obviously the Hawk had to have seen some sort of potential in you." _

"I doubt it."

"_But it must be true. The Hawk is a very observant and wise creature, even back when he was the Tyrannosaurus-Dragon. He must have chosen you because he sensed some hidden potential. Otherwise, he would have never chosen you to be the Red Ranger..._"

Rocky nodded, She was right. There had to have been some reason that Jason had chosen him to be the Red Ranger. After all, it wasn't like Jason to just make a decision without thinking it through, especially not something as important as whom to transfer power to.

He wasn't sure what it was exactly that had made Jason pick him to become the Red Ranger, but whatever the reason had been, it was something that Jason had seen in Rocky, that he himself wasn't even aware of.

Thinking back on it, when Tommy had gone off on his own to face Goldar or go on his own mission, Rocky had sometimes been the one to take control of the team. He hadn't done too badly; really, he had managed to act in the best interest of the team, like any real leader would.

It had to have been some inner strength that Jason could sense that had made him make this decision.

An inner strength that Rocky really wished he could call upon at that moment. He had to prove to his friends that he was alright, (for the most part) and alive.

Flashes of Silver and Orange came to Rocky's eyes. The last of the vines upon him had finally been shattered. Rocky collapsed to the ground as the area became a blinding white once more.

He may have been free...but he knew that he wasn't completely ready to come to his friends' aid.

* * *

Trini leapt into the air and came crashing in on Sleep-walker, hitting him with her weapons. While her attack landed on him, he stuck his hand up into the air and nailed her with a slash of the Power-sword, sending her to the ground.

Zack swung his weapon at Sleep-walker. Even though "Rocky" was able to use only one of his arms, he managed to block the attacks from the Nunchuku easily.

"Impossible!! Even with only half his body functioning.....He's able to block attacks, as well as counter attack! It's just not humanly possible!" Billy stated in shock as he watched Zack get thrown to the ground.

Sleep-walker laughed as he looked toward the Blue Ranger. "Haven't you figured it out yet Blue Ranger? I'm not human!"

Kat launched a beam of Green Energy at Sleep-walker, which he just deflected back at her. With an angry growl he turned toward the Green Ranger.

While he was stopped, with his back turned to the Blue and Pink Rangers, Billy took the opportunity to attack, knowing that he had the chance to catch "Rocky" off guard, and possibly do some damage.

He leapt into the air and swung the Power Lance at him, at the same time Kimberly summoned up enough strength to shoot one of the Power-Bow arrows at "Rocky" hoping to hit him the back.

Sleep-walker however, didn't have his guard down like either one of them planned. In one quick movement, he grasped onto the Power-Lance with his good hand, and threw Billy across the room, before, putting his hand behind his back and catching the arrow before it hit him.

The whole idea that the Rangers were still coming at him, was making him laugh. Even with half of the control over this body eliminated, he was still faster than them, and stronger than them. He found it absolutely pathetic that they were still willing to fight him, even though, they knew that by now, the friend that they had once known, had long since died.

Why didn't they just give in? They knew they weren't going to be able to beat him. He knew he really should just finish them off, even though, there was still one Ranger who had yet to join the battle, but having the Rangers team up against him, was just too much fun.

As he approached the Orange Ranger, lying on the ground. He sneered evilly. She seemed already close to be giving up. She hadn't made any attempt to get back to her feet in the last few minutes. Maybe it would be best to take advantage of the situation and go ahead and kill her. The least he could do is start on carrying out the orders that he had been given.

After all, he had figured that he already had enough fun as it was.

As he approached the fallen Yellow Ranger, she suddenly sprang to life. "NOW!" she called out to Zack, who suddenly leapt into the air, throwing himself at "Rocky"

In unison, both of them threw their force into their attacks, and successfully landed the attacks on the Red Ranger. There was an explosion of energy that went through the room, shattering the remaining mirrors.

When the light cleared, all six of the Rangers stood there, looking at their friend. He was standing there staring at them, with an evil smirk on his face.

"Do not think you have won against me that easily Power Rangers..."

With this "Rocky," began to glow a violent red. He fell to his hands and knees, clenching his fist to fight back pain. All the while, though, he was beginning to laugh psychotically. Now the Rangers would have to face him in his true form.

Rocky had been lost somewhere in the midst of this battle, since he could no longer detect him, which meant the Powers of the guardian spirit of the Ape were now fully under Sleep-walker's control. Completely evil, and obedient to him. It would do as he said, and protect him when necessary.

"...and now, to unleash the power of the Wild guardian spirit of the Mighty Ape!" Sleep-walker roared as he threw his head back, summoning all the energy in his body. Forcing himself out of Rocky's mind and body.

With a bright red flash, Sleep-walker now appeared before the Rangers. His red eyes leering down at them, the aura of red smoke, hovering around his actual body.

Rocky's body lay on the ground, staring blankly, since as for now it was nothing more than a shell of a body.

Which, would make it a perfect Puppet for the Ape Ninjetti spirit, he thought, holding his hand over Rocky's body.

Slowly, as Sleep-walker lifted his hand above his head, Rocky's body slowly started to get to its feet. His eyes still glowing a pure red, like they had been for this entire battle. He started to flex his fingers as he stood there before him, Sleep-walker standing behind him with his hand outstretched as if he were a puppet-master and Rocky's body were merely just a puppet, that he was bringing to life.

After a few seconds, Rocky's body was finally back on its feet, glaring back at them like a demon.

"My Masters will be pleased to know that at long last, their plans for ruling the world shall be fulfilled! It is an honor, I must say, that it would be me...who would be the one to eliminate the one thing that is standing between them and domination of the world!" Sleep-walker laughed darkly as he looked down at the Rangers.

"As soon, as I am done killing you all, it will be almost nothing for My Masters to destroy the White and Gold Rangers."

"In fact....I think my mistress Beelzalea's plans for destroying the both of them are about to begin soon as it is. It's a real shame that you'll all be dead before them."

Sleep-walker shrugged, put his hand on his hips, and shook his head. "But I guess if there is one thing that we can learn from this is that, they are like true leaders....always there for their team, until their team needs them most, and then they are nowhere to be found. All great leaders would rather sacrifice the lives of their team, rather than their own." He stated with a tone of mock-sympathy.

The Rangers, glared back at him. How could this monster, talk about what a true leader was? Tommy and Jason hadn't abandoned them, instead, they all knew that he had tricked them into coming here, under the impression that both Jason and Tommy were already here.

Aisha crossed her arms and looked down at the weapons in her hands. Neither one of these monsters that stood before her were her friend. Even if the body that stood before them, wearing the Red Ranger suit looked like Rocky, it wasn't. Neither of these monsters were him.

Rocky had been lost somewhere. Whether it had been a few days ago, when his whole behavior had started to change, or whether it have been somewhere in this battle, Rocky's spirit had been lost, and so Aisha began to realize the truth of the situation.

Her heart was beating fast, and her thoughts were racing. She could barely keep herself on her feet, or her grasp on the Power-daggers. First Adam and now Rocky...two people that she had known her entire life were dead.

No....she wasn't going to believe it! Not both of them! One of them being dead? Maybe. But the two of them? No. She wouldn't believe it. There was no proof that Rocky was dead, and until she saw him die with her own eyes, she wasn't going to quit believing that he was still alive somewhere. Something in her just wouldn't let her believe that he was dead.

Gripping the Power Daggers tighter in her hand, she turned towards Zack and the others, a fierce determination in her eyes.

"You guys take care of the Monster. I want to fight Rocky....or at least what's left of him."

Sleep-walker laughed as he heard the Yellow Ranger say this. She was really planning on fighting against her own friend? Even if his body was being inhabited by the Guardian spirit of the Ape, which had been turned toward Evil..., she was still willing to fight?

As you wish Yellow Ranger!

Throwing his hand out, Sleep-walker mentally ordered the Guardian Ape spirit to attack the Yellow Ranger.

* * *

Emerging from the shadows of the alleyway was a man with long spiky red hair. He stood there slowly clapping as he approached her. He wore a black leather trench-coat what appeared to be a uniform for some sort of military organization. Although she couldn't recognize the military organization that the uniform belonged to.

"Who are you? What do you mean I passed? And...and more importantly how do you know my name?"

The man laughed briefly as he bowed to her. "I am called Alone, as for a further explanation on who I am; I will have to give you at another time. But you must know, I am terribly sorry about the attack, Ms, Sloane."

"Just call me Tanya...okay?"

With a slight bow, Alone reached into the pocket of his trench-coat and withdrew an item which he placed into Tanya's hands.

"I was sent by a being that is known as Ninjor, to give you that."

Looking down at the object in her hands, Tanya's eyes went wide in shock. She couldn't believe what she was holding. A real, Morpher and a Power Coin! She had seen these objects in pictures of the Power Rangers that a lot of people had, but she had never actually seen a real Morpher up close, and she had never imagined that she would be standing there actually holding one in her hands.

The morpher in her hands, looked just like the others that she had seen, except that it was bronze in color, which she guessed--from looking at the morphers that the Rangers wore on their belts in the pictures--matched the color the Ranger suit would be.

Although, now that she thought about it, she suddenly came to realize something, which she hadn't even thought of before. If she had been given this, then did that mean that she had been chosen, by either Alone, or this Ninjor guy to become a Power Ranger?

Almost as if hearing her thoughts, Alone nodded. "Ninjor has chosen you to have the Power of the Final Ninjetti Animal spirit. Before, I could give you the morpher however; you had to prove yourself worthy of the Power."

Tanya couldn't help but just stare in disbelief. Was this guy, really saying that she was....a Power Ranger?

Alone crossed his arms and looked down at the ground, closing his eyes. For a brief minute he looked as if he had fallen asleep right there. Soon, however, he opened his eyes.

"It's going to be starting soon. I'm afraid we must hurry. So, Tanya...if you would please, focus your energy into the Power-coin and call out, Bronze Ranger Power."

Tanya did as she was told, although trying to fight back her excitement the whole entire time, so that she wouldn't embarrass herself in front of Alone. A brownish-gold light filled the alleyway coming from the Power-coin in a few seconds.

"Bronze Ranger Power!"

A strong breeze played with Tanya's hair and clothing as the light covered her body, transforming the plain black tank-top and brown skirt and black leggings and boots into a bronze-colored Ranger suit, complete with a skirt.

As the light cleared, Tanya looked down at the outfit. She had to admit, this was about the coolest thing that she had ever experienced! She just couldn't wait to use her new Powers!

Looking towards Alone, she was surprised to see that he had changed as well. Instead of the black trench-coat that he was wearing earlier, he was now clothed in armor that to Tanya reminded her of a Shogun Warrior's outfit.

"Well, Ready?" he asked from behind the helmet.

With a nod, that Tanya hoped wasn't going to make her seem over-eager to rush into battle or something. After all it wasn't that she was eager to fight, it was just that she was so excited about her new power that she couldn't wait to go out and give them a try and find out just what it actually took to be a Power Ranger.

Another exciting thought filled her head as she thought about this. She might actually get to meet the Power Rangers, and find out who they really were! The whole idea seemed so exciting.

A bright flash of bronze came before Tanya's eyes, as teleportation took place. She could feel herself becoming pure energy as the power transported her from the alley-way to wherever Alone was taking her.

* * *

The Command center, Adam thought as he looked towards the quickly darkening horizon, he could see its hazy shadow close to him. It would be another few hours before they reached it, but they were almost there.

Well, he thought, stopping and glancing behind him, this was it. This was close to the place where his dream had started, and it was close to the time that it had started as well. So, he'd better be prepared to run like hell.

Looking over, at the girl beside him he gave a weak smile to Ceres. Soon, the rabbit-disguised Purple Ranger Power was going to return to the Power-coin it had once belonged to, and while that would enable her adoptive daughter to become the Purple Ranger, it would mean that she would be losing someone who has practically been like a mother to her.

It should be starting soon, Adam thought as he looked up towards the top of one of the nearby cliffs. For a brief moment he almost swore that he had seen a flash of light up there. But after several seconds of looking up into the dark cliffs, and seeing no movement, caused by people or otherwise, he finally just assumed that it was his imagination.

He was starting to get a bad feeling in his stomach.

Things were quiet, and that's what really bothered him.

Rita and Zedd, and that whole group had pretty much left him alone since the beginning of this mission, aside from a few Tengu and Putty attacks, but that wasn't really anything. It just didn't seem right. He was sure that by now, they would have realized that he had gotten to where he was supposed to go, and was already on his way back, and would try to stop him.

If they were distracted by another mission, Adam only hoped that his friends were alright.

Of course, they had to be; he thought with a laugh, they're tough. Any Monsters that are thrown in those guys' ways will definitely be defeated, even if it takes some time and they had to get injured in the process, they would overcome it.

They would be fine. After all, they had Rocky. Adam knew that Rocky was like the rest of them, and never wanted to see any of his friends get seriously hurt, or die. If anything were to happen to any of them then Adam knew that Rocky, would definitely step up to defend them.

He really knew that he should be more worried about things were he was at, at the current time.

* * *

Once more, the light cleared around Rocky. He could see the whole scene before him, and recognized it almost immediately. It had been a few weeks before him, Adam, and Aisha were going to move to Angel Grove. School had just ended and he, Adam, Aisha, and their friends were all walking to the park, to hang out that afternoon.

"I just can't believe that you guys are all gonna be moving away! I mean, you go to Angel Grove for a competition and then the next thing we know you're all moving there!" Dustin stated as he wrapped an arm around Shauna's waist as he spoke.

Aisha shrugged. "Well, it not like we could really help it. You know. And I really am gonna miss hanging out with you guys." She said with a slight smile as she looked towards the two of them.

"Well, we should call each other every chance we get, at least once a week you know?" Shauna said as she gave a small laugh.

Aisha nodded as she flipped her hair. Even though, Rocky knew that by the time that they got to Angel Grove, things would be getting a little hectic for them, and that it would be a long time before any of them would be able to contact any one from Stone Canyon.

"If a monster attacks occurs, you've totally gotta tell me what it was like, and totally tell me if you get to meet the Power Rangers!!" Dustin stated cheerfully as he smiled and looked over at Rocky.

Rocky, the one not in the memory almost had to laugh. He had forgotten that ever since they had heard news about the monster attacks in Angel Grove and about the Power Rangers, Dustin had been a huge fan of them.

He remembered that Dustin had a huge clip-board full of newspaper clippings involving stories of the Power Rangers and their heroic rescues, as well as pictures that had been taken of the Power Rangers in action.

Man, would Dustin have been surprised if he had ever found out that three of his best friends had actually become Power Rangers not too soon after they had started school in Angel Grove.

Looking up at the scene, Rocky realized that he had missed quite a bit of the conversation, since he had been thinking about how much Dustin had been a fan of the Power Rangers.

Now, the five of them stood in front of a group of people that Rocky didn't even have to think twice about who they were. Jaime and Cody and their group of friends.

It was funny, but Rocky hadn't noticed it, but from the memory that he had a few days ago of when he had become friends with Adam, and this one, even though a span of several years had passed between the two memories, Jaime and Cody were almost completely different, and yet somehow the same.

Jaime looked more like a football player than anything. He wasn't the heavy-set kid that Rocky remembered as being about the same height as him. Instead the Teenaged Jaime that stood before him in this memory was of an overly muscular build, who towered over Rocky by at least half a foot. He looked a lot more threatening than he had before; Rocky thought as he remembered what Jaime looked like as a kid.

Cody on the other hand, was about as tall as Rocky himself was, but was still as thin and spindly as he had been when he was a kid.

However, both were still as mean as ever. Still looking for a fight, from anyone who happened to cross paths with them. Especially looking for a fight from Rocky and his friends.

Rocky remembered that it seemed like wherever they had gone Jaime and Cody and that whole group was there ready to challenge them to a fight. If he didn't know any better he would have swore it was Jaime's mission to get into a huge fight with them before they all graduated.

Or at least as of the most recent situation in the flashback, before Rocky, Adam, and Aisha moved to Angel Grove. (Since the two of them didn't seem to have much interest in fighting either Shauna or Dustin, since Dustin had already gotten into a fight with them back in the sixth grade, and Shauna didn't have any martial-arts training...which is one of the main reasons that they even wanted to fight them.)

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Jaime sneered as he looked down at the group, his arms crossed.

Rocky, in the memory, grunted in annoyance as he regarded that Jaime and Cody were there, but signaled that he didn't want to put up with them.

Aisha sighed and put her hands on her hips as she looked up at the two of them. She didn't want to deal with them either. It was too nice a day outside to be dealing with the likes of two annoying bullies. Hadn't they already gotten the picture that she wasn't going to fight them, no matter how much they tried to annoy her in hopes that she would snap.

Of course, it didn't look like they could just easily turn around and just walk away this time.

They were surrounded by the entire group, on all sides, and it looked like the only way to get past them would be to either throw a punch or get hit by a punch.

"You know, Aisha...We've known each other for how long?" Jaime asked as he stood right in front of Aisha looking down at her, while he cracked his knuckles together.

Rocky didn't like the fact that Jaime had decided to try to drag Aisha into a fight first. He knew that while Aisha could defend herself, and was smart enough to try to talk her way out a fight, Jaime wasn't one to just easily give up when it looked like someone was finding their way out of a fight.

"Years...and years...." Aisha stated trying to seem polite, although clenching her fist at her side.

"You know, Aisha. In all the years I've known you, I've only wondered one thing..." Jaime continued as he shot a glance towards Rocky, Adam, Dustin and Shauna.

Aisha crossed her arms and looked over towards her friends; she was trying really hard to stay calm, even though her irritation at having to waste her time talking to Jaime was starting to show.

Rocky, watched the scene and remembered what he had been thinking. He knew that this wasn't going to end peacefully; even now he knew that it wasn't going to end nicely.

Was, Jaime really going to go as far as hitting a girl? He wondered as he watched Jaime's face become angrier and angrier.

He wasn't even paying attention to what was going on in the conversation; he was just waiting for Jaime to lose it and haul off and try to hit Aisha.

Even though, now that he could see the scene from a third-person view, he could tell that Adam appeared to be anticipating the same thing, as if he had the same plan in mind for if Jaime did hit Aisha.

Rocky, remembered what his plan had been. If he hit Aisha, then he would be getting the fight from him that he had been looking for. After all, he wasn't just going to sit by and let one of his friends get hit. Especially if Jaime would be low enough to hit a girl.

It looked like Adam had the same idea in mind. It didn't matter how many people Jaime and Cody had on their side, if Jaime hit Aisha he would take on all of them if he had to.

As he watched the scene, Rocky began to forget that this was only a memory. He could feel his own anger at the situation rising, and he was prepared to leap into action and take on Jaime, even though he knew that fighting a memory wouldn't be effective.

It only took a few minutes for Jaime to finally reach the point where Aisha had gotten out of a fight against him enough times that he realized using words to provoke her into a fight would not work, and so he decided to resort to his fist to persuade Aisha to fight.

As he watched Jaime's fist come down towards Aisha, Rocky (both the one in memory and the one not in the memory) leapt in front of Aisha, taking the hit for her. Although Jaime's fist passed right through the Rocky, who wasn't part of the memory. When Jaime's fist made contact with him there was a bright flash of yellow came before Rocky's eyes.

"Don't _ever_ hit a girl! If you're gonna fight someone, fight someone of the same gender you bastard." Both Rocky's said in unison as they looked at Jaime's surprised face. (He was only surprised because Rocky had taken the hit for Aisha; he couldn't even see the other Rocky standing there.)

The both of them turned towards Aisha, and asked if she was alright.

"I'm fine....but, you didn't have to do that Rocky...."

Of course, he didn't have to do that, Aisha could defend herself, and could have taken the hit, but he just couldn't sit by and let his friend get hurt. Besides Jaime fought dirty, and Dustin could back him up on that. Even with the five of them there, Jaime could still probably do some serious damage to Aisha if she wasn't careful.

Before Rocky could reply to Aisha, Jaime's fist came flying at him once more. Jaime had intended to catch Rocky while his back was turned, and hit him in the back of the head, which with enough force, he was sure that he could have either knocked Rocky unconscious for a while, or killed him.

However, Rocky, the one in the memory figured that Jaime would try to pull a trick like that. As Jaime's fist came down once more, both Rockys spun around and their hands shot out, taking hold of Jaime's wrist, stopping him mid-punch.

The second that Rocky's hand made contact with Jaime's wrist, the whole scene became a blinding white, like it Rocky had come to be know as being a signal of transitioning into another flashback. However, something was different about this one...he could just tell it.

* * *

Alone and Tanya had landed on a cliff right in the middle of the desert.

Landing here really confused Tanya, there didn't seem to be any danger here. Looking over through the desert she saw something driving through the sands, not too far away from where they were. It looked like a vehicle of some sort, although from this distance, Tanya couldn't really tell what was going on.

She looked towards Alone, with a questioned look behind her helmet, as if he were going to be able to see her expression.

Alone was kneeling at the edge of the cliff looking directly below them. As Tanya walked towards him, to see what he was staring at so intently at, Alone held up his hand signaling to Tanya to remain quiet and stay low, so that she wouldn't be spotted by whatever was down at the base of the cliff.

As she sat there close to Alone, she noticed that the bracers on his wrists had become a bright blue, as well as his armor had changed from being pure black, to being black with blue swirling designs upon it.

She was about to ask him about why, and how his armor had changed like it did but he held up his hand once more, to silence her. Obviously any questions she had would be answered later.

Looking down, Tanya noticed a couple of people who were walking through the desert. Obviously they were headed towards a weird rock formation that almost vaguely, now that Tanya looked at it was almost like a building. If it was a building that they were heading to, Tanya wondered what it was, or what it was used for. It had to have some importance, after all, two people wouldn't be wondering around in the middle of nowhere, without a purpose.

From where she stood, she could almost make out the two people who were walking down there.

One of them was dressed in a black-ninja like outfit. Tanya recognized the outfit, as one of the outfits that she had often seen the Power Rangers wearing right before they morphed into their suits. What was the Black Ranger doing this far out in the desert?

Another question that she found herself asking, was who was that girl with him, and why was she carrying a rabbit in her arms?

But most importantly, why was Alone was focused on this group? Had he really brought Tanya out there just to spy on them?

However, before Tanya could even begin to ponder over these questions, she noticed a huge dust cloud starting to form not too far away from them. She had a bad feeling that this dust cloud was no tornado, but instead something more.

Maybe it was an additional sense that she had acquired with these powers, but she couldn't help but feel that that cloud was the appearance of monsters. With that she couldn't help but feel that Alone, somehow had a part in the appearance of these monsters, if he wasn't the cause for their appearance, like she had assumed that he had been with the appearance of the Putty.

Just whose side was Alone on? He had given her Ranger Power, and was being all polite and kind, towards her, but here he was creating these monsters that she was pretty sure that he intended to send towards the two who were down below them, was he trying to kill them?

"What are you doing?!!" She whispered harshly to him. Although Alone did not respond to her.

She watched as the two people below her freeze as they heard the noise from the approaching dust cloud of monsters. For several seconds they looked behind them curiously, trying to figure out what the source of the strange noise they heard was.

Then she saw them take off running, the Dust cloud of monsters was really close to them. Tanya gripped the edge of the cliff tightly in anticipation and also for the fact that she was trying to hold back the urge to jump into battle.

* * *

Jason stopped the Jeep almost immediately. He swore he could hear a low rumbling noise off in the distance. He knew that Tommy was a little confused about his friend suddenly stopping the Jeep, and looking around.

Actually, Tommy seemed a little bit curious about the noise that Jason was hearing. The sky was clear, for miles, so there was no possibility that the noise that they were hearing could possibly be a simple Thunderstorm.

Looking towards the horizon, Tommy was the first to catch sight of the dust-cloud that had appeared not too far away from them.

"Jason, Look at that!"

Jason's eyes went directly to where Tommy was pointing. A horrible sinking was starting to fill his heart, mixed with an unwelcome sense of Déjà Vu. The mix of these feelings prevented Jason from being able to exhale a breath. His hands gripped the steering-wheel tightly.

So, this was it. This was the start of the dream that he had been having. It had all began with seeing the dust cloud on the horizon.

Tommy took the MPVG from out of the backpack that he had brought with him, flipping it open, and pressing a couple of buttons that he remembered Billy telling him would activate the screen that he was looking for, his eyes went wide in shock.

"10 monsters, at least... Probably the source of the cloud and the noise we heard....."

Not too soon after this had left Jason watched Tommy's eyes grow even wider in shock as he looked down at the device. Every few seconds he would glance towards the dust cloud, and then back down to the screen not sure if what was seeing on the screen was right.

For several seconds, Jason wondered why Tommy appeared to be so shocked. I mean, sure he must have been shocked by the fact that there were like 10 monsters that were the source of the dust cloud that they were seeing, but even then there shouldn't be too much of a shock, they knew that Rita would probably plan a attack while they were out.

After all, sometimes it felt like Rita knew what they were up too. Almost as if she had some way of watching them, and finding out what was going on. Which the whole idea was a little creepy; Jason had to admit, because knowing that Rita was watching them was almost like an invasion of privacy.

"Tommy, what is it?"

"Jason, its Adam!!"

Hearing this Jason was thrown into complete shock. Was Tommy surethat he had picked up Adam's signal on the device, and it wasn't just an error on the screen?

Taking out the MPVG that belonged to him, Jason quickly brought up the same screen that Tommy had been viewing that had picked up a signal. Looking at the data on the screen, Jason was shocked.

There hadn't been an error. He could see the dots on the screen that represented the monsters that weren't too far away from them, and on the other side of them, was the black-dot that represented Adam's energy signal.

With it were a couple of unfamiliar signals.

According to the map, the monsters were on the move towards Adam and whoever he was with.

"Come on! Let's go!" Tommy shouted as he pulled out his morpher, and gave a look towards Jason.

With a deep breath, Jason gripped the steering wheel. If they just went in there, there would be the possibility that Tommy would be getting himself killed.

...but if they didn't go, then Adam and whoever he was with would really get killed. Which, after finding out that Adam had in fact been alive all this time, which confirmed that Minerva had been lying to the Rangers and Adam's mother when she had said that she had killed him, having Adam actually get killed, would have just made things worse.

Giving a nod towards Tommy, Jason finally came to the conclusion that he would rather take the chance of Tommy getting killed than go with the guarantee of Adam getting killed.

In a matter of seconds the both of them had morphed, and were speeding towards the dust cloud, right into battle.

* * *

Adam felt like his lungs were on fire as he ran. Even though he knew that out-running the dust cloud was going to be impossible and pointless. The most that he could do was try.

Ceres surprisingly was a head of both him and the girl by several feet. The minute that she had saw the dust cloud sweeping towards them; she had wiggled out of her adoptive daughter's arms and took off running, beckoning for them to follow her.

After several minutes of running, Ceres stopped in front of a familiar patch of tall dead grass that both Adam and the girl recognized from their dream. (Although neither one of them knew that the patch of dead grass that they were heading to was familiar to the other one.)

So far, everything was playing out just like it had in the dream, Adam realized as he and the girl knelt down in the grass. Ceres had not joined them in their hiding spot, and was standing there, looking towards the approaching dust cloud; any moment the cloud would be there and Ceres would be killed.

"CER---" the girl began to shout, trying to get Ceres to come over there. Quickly, almost asking on impulse of not wanting to have their hiding spot compromised by her shouting, he placed his hand over her mouth, and wrapped his arm around her to try to restrain her from leaving the hiding spot to go to Ceres.

Sure, he knew it was a little rude of him to be doing this, but he felt it had to be done. Unfortunately, as much as he hated to admit it, the Purple Rabbit Ranger Power-coin had to be reactivated, and the only way for that to happen would be for Ceres to do what she had to do.

In a matter of seconds, the monsters were upon him. Luckily they didn't seem to be noticing the two of them crouched down in the grass, even though the girl was squirming enough to try to break from Adam's restraining grasp.

* * *

Tanya watched in horror from the cliff.

"Alone! You've got to stop this!!!" She shouted as she shook Alone's shoulder trying to get him to stop staring in concentration down at the ground, at where the monsters were. If he was responsible for this, then he could stop it before the people down there got killed.

Slowly, Alone got to his feet. As he stood up, his armor began to change once more. The blue-swirls that had appeared on his armor were suddenly replaced by white, feathery-wing like designs. He looked down at Tanya with a stern look on his face, although it was hidden behind his helmet.

"It's not me who is responsible for this monster attack, not this time."

"Then, we've gotta get down there and help!! Those two could get killed!!"

Alone looked towards the edge of the cliff down to the battle scene. He was silent for several seconds.

"The rabbit could end this without my help...but...If you insist that help be given." He stated as he stuck his arm out to the side, and looking down at the ground. A white aura was beginning to surround him, as he summoned energy.

After several seconds, Tanya noticed that some of the energy that surrounded Alone seemed to be taking shape on his arm. It appeared to be building up into the form of a bird of some sort. She could see its sleek white body starting to take shape as began to form perched on Alone's outstretched arm.

When it was over, a sleek-pure white Falcon made of energy was perched upon his arm.

Alone gave the falcon on his arm a gentle pat on the head, and approached the edge of the cliff.

Not even waiting for the Jeep to come to a complete stop, before he leapt from it, pulling out his weapon and dashing into battle. Slashing randomly at any enemy that happened to be in his way.

Honestly, he didn't see any sign of Adam anywhere. All he saw was a rabbit. Surely, these monsters weren't just here for the rabbit. Tommy thought as he ducked out of the way of one of the monsters. It wasn't too much longer until Jason joined the battle dashing here and there slicing down opponents with the Power-scythe.

* * *

Aisha rushed at Rocky, while the others rushed at Sleep-walker. She was determined to fight Rocky, with all her might. After all the Rocky that she once knew seemed to be just a memory. Rocky was her friend, and she wouldn't fight her friends. However, she knew that she couldn't fight memories either, so she guessed either way it didn't matter.

The battle was rather intense. Aisha soon realized that her power wasn't much of a match against the possessed Red Ranger. Even though the both of them had taken a lot of damage, Rocky was still fighting against Aisha with all his force. The least that Aisha found herself capable of doing several minutes into the battle was defending herself.

She noticed that the whole time that "Rocky" fought her; an inhuman growling was coming from his throat. When he swung at her, Aisha notice the noise that he made, almost made him sound like an angry ape, which if this were just a training session or something, Aisha would have found it amusing that Rocky was starting to sound like his Animal-spirit.

However, since this battle was for real, and he was trying to kill her, she didn't find it amusing, rather she just found it to be rather disturbing.

As she looked over her shoulder, she noticed the others locked in battle with the monster that had appeared. Things didn't seem to be going to well for them in that battle either, as that monster wasn't going down easily.

"Rocky, I never thought I would be doing this....." She found herself saying as she swiped at Rocky's arm with the Power Dagger, causing a couple of sparks to fly from the ranger suit, and blood to come from the torn parts on the suit.

He retaliated by slashing at her with the Power-sword. Aisha grunted in pain as part of her Power-suit was torn up by this attack.

After several minutes of battling, Aisha was realizing that planning her attacks wasn't benefiting her; she was only getting beaten by Rocky. It was almost as if he were able to read her mind and decide what her next move was going to be, so that he could counter it.

If she were able to blind him, he might still be able to predict her next move, but there was a chance, that if she made use swiftness and stealth she could probably land attacks on him, quick enough to take him down.

Sure, it was a long shot that the plan would even work, but the least she could do would be to try.

With a grunt, she threw her force into one of her daggers, and swiped at Rocky's face. Lucky for her she managed to hit Rocky dead on in the eyes, leaving a gash right across his face.

Giving a roar of pain, "Rocky" covered his eyes with his hands. For several seconds he held his hands over his bleeding face, while Aisha snuck around him, prepared to launch a back attack, possibly stabbing him if she absolutely had to.

It didn't look like he could see her, because once he brought his hands away from his face with an angry growl, he started swinging wildly at the open air.

I'm...really sorry about all this Rocky. Aisha thought as she summoned her power into the Power Daggers, preparing herself for the attack.

With a shout she leapt into the air. Closing her eyes as she launched herself at Rocky. She didn't want to see the Power Dagger's going through his back, right through his heart. It would have just been much too painful for her to actually see.

Instead of hearing the sickening noise of the Power daggers tearing through flesh, or feeling blood splattering onto her hands, she was surprised that when she landed on the ground, she felt nothing, and the only sound that she could hear was from the battle that going on between Sleep-Walker and the others.

Actually, her hand was suspended in the air, by "Rocky's" hand. She could feel Rocky's fingers wrapped around her wrist, holding her hand up in the air, preventing the Power-daggers from hitting him. The grasp that held her, was shaking terribly.

"Aisha!"

Hearing her name, she slowly opened her eyes. Looking down into to Rocky's eyes, her heart almost skipped a beat, and tears almost poured from her eyes. Even though the eyes that looked back at her were completely blood-shot from the gash that ran across his face, they were the color that they should have been. For once in the past few days, she saw something present on the face that she looked at, that had not been present in the last few days.

It was such a relief, that she could actually see a smile on Rocky's face, even if it was almost hard to tell since his face, like the rest of him was so battered, bruised, and bloody that it was hard to distinguish expressions on his face.

Before anything else could be said, Rocky stumbled forward; Aisha caught him before he hit the ground. Obviously, Aisha noticed, the change from being a monster back to being human, had drained him of a lot of energy, and the damage that the others had inflicted on him had taken their toll on his strength as well.

* * *

"....Humph. So, you've finally figured out how to escape, have you?" Sleep-walker stated crossing his arms as the battle between the Rangers and him stopped abruptly when they saw what had been going on in the battle between Aisha and Rocky.

Rocky looked at Sleep-walker, an angry glare upon his face, as he wiped away from of the blood from his face.

"I told you, you hadn't won yet, Sleep-walker."

With a slight smirk upon his face, Sleep-walker approached Rocky. "It's a real pity that you did escape alive. I mean, only to die alongside your friends at my hands."

Hanging his head Rocky looked at the ground. He wouldn't be going down with his friends. After all that he had gone through in the past few days, he couldn't help but feel that he knew how to defeat Sleep-Walker.

It was going to be difficult, and dangerous, but it had to be done, and Rocky knew that he was the only one who could do it.

He pushed himself away from Aisha, and slowly got back to his feet. Although he was drained of strength, he found it rather easy for him to stay on his feet, when he was being motivated by pure determination.

It was the determination to end this all, to finally take down Sleep-walker, and put this whole thing behind him, that was burning brightly in his heart and keeping him going, despite his wounds, and shattered Ranger Armor.

Sleep-walker smirked. He found it absolutely delightful that Rocky would still face him in battle, despite the injuries that his friends had inflicted on him, and despite the fact that he knew that since they no longer shared the same body, he was not a limitation upon Sleep-walker's power anymore.

"You, would face me in battle?" He asked as he looked down at the Red Ranger who was slowly making his way towards him. Rocky's grasp upon the Power-sword was weak, and it didn't look like he had much strength to lift it to swing at Sleep-walker.

With a grunt, and a nod, Rocky looked at Sleep-Walker, right in the eyes.

"Rocky....Don't! He's too strong!" Kat shouted.

Turning towards his friends he gave a small, smile of reassurance, which seemed to tell them; you guys, I'm the only one who can defeat him now. I have to do this. You've got to trust me.

"Then you are willing to forfeit your life, against my power. A rather foolish thing for someone to risk the last thing that he would have left in the world first."

Rocky gave a small laugh, as he continued towards Sleep-walker. "A person who risks the last thing he has left in the world, is willing to risk it for everything else that is important to him." he stated as his grasp on the Power Sword tightened.

Cracking his knuckles, Sleep-walker prepared himself to attack. "A noble thing for a knight to say, `tis a shame that nobility lay in the heart of a mere human."

The other Rangers found their breath caught in their throats. Hearing what was being said, they were shocked. Was Rocky really saying that he was willing to lay down his life in order defeat this monster?

A cold chill ran down their spines hearing Rocky speak like this. While they had to admire what he said, knowing that to him, his friends were more important than his own life, It wasn't like the Red Ranger to be so serious, they had never heard him just come out and say that he would sacrifice his own life for them.

Turning towards them, Rocky gave them a stern look. His hazel eyes turned cold and serious, amidst the blood that covered his face. It was a haunting sight to behold, there was no disputing that. His eyes, they held the look of a man who was bravely facing certain death, not willing to back down from it.

Were these eyes, so cold and serious, so very unlike the eyes that they had once been, going to be the only goodbye the Rangers were going to get from their friend? Was this the last memory that they would have of the Red Ranger?

Without a word to them, he turned again and looked towards Sleep-walker. There would be no verbal good bye from him, if goodbye was what would need to be said in the outcome of this situation.

Tension hung in the air between the two of them. Neither made a move towards one another, in an attempt to break the tension and begin the battle.

It was such a mysterious thing, the tension of the approaching battle, it weighed heavy upon every heart almost too heavy for it to be lifted, and yet so delicate that even the slightest exhale of breath could shatter it to a million pieces and throw everything into chaos, Sleep-walker mused as he listened to the death-like silence that hung in the cold air.

* * *

Ceres was caught in the teeth of one of the monsters. Hearing her pained screams was almost heart-wrenching for both Adam and the girl to hear. Although, at the same time, Adam was looking on in amazement as he watched an unfamiliar Ranger enter the battle with the White Ranger.

Apparently, Adam thought, he had missed quite a bit in the last few days that he had been gone. At least one new Ranger had been named, and both he and Tommy had come to the desert for some reason or another.

As Adam thought that they would have to get used to this new member of the team, once all this was over, He saw a flash of white streak through the battle field. It knocked Ceres out of the monster's grasp, as Ceres lay on the ground, partially wounded, Adam noticed that the light that he had saw, was in the shape of a falcon and it seemed to have wrapped it's wings around Ceres, much as if it were trying to shield her.

The monster that the light-falcon had hit to save Ceres, was now trying to attack the falcon. The more damage that the falcon took, the less bright the light it was composed of became. Adam was sure that in a few minutes the falcon would be completely destroyed.

So, that's what I saw in my dream? Adam thought hopefully. If he was seeing things correctly, he had not seen Tommy being brutally murdered by the monsters that swarmed the area, but rather he had actually seen a falcon, or whatever this thing was, since Adam knew that it couldn't really be a falcon since it was made out of light, being destroyed

When the light-falcon had at once been destroyed, the monsters started trying to attack Ceres once more.

The girl wasn't going to take this anymore. Ceres was in danger, and could be killed if she didn't step in and do anything she wasn't going to just sit here and let Ceres get killed. With a furious growl, she sunk her teeth into the side of Adam's hand, and pushed him away from her, as she got to her feet and left the hiding spot.

"Wait!"

"_My child, what are you doing?! You're not supposed to be out here!" _Ceres shouted, telepathically to the girl as she rushed out there.

Adam inhaled deeply as he pulled out his morpher. Well, it didn't appear that there was much more use in hiding. The monsters already knew that they were there, and so what was the point in hiding. Besides, he was sure that Tommy and this other guy would need all the help they could get.

"Alright, it's morphin' time. Black Ranger Power!" he shouted as he closed his eyes, the violet-black light shot from his morpher, covering him in light, as his Ninja suit transformed to his ranger suit.

Looking down from the cliff, Tanya clenched her fist. There might be three Rangers in battle, but they were still out-numbered, and Alone's Falcon had been destroyed, she had to help them!

This wasn't exactly how she figured she would have gotten introduced to her fellow rangers, or get to test out her new power. She figured she would have gotten to start with at least one monster, not 10 at once.

Oh, well, it didn't matter, she thought as she summoned up her power weapon, cannon. As she backed away from the edge of the cliff she took a deep breath, readying herself for the drop she would have to take to get to the ground.

"You coming?" She asked as she turned towards Alone, who was looking at her almost eerily calm, as he adjusted the gloves on his hands.

He gave a nod in reply to her question, almost as if he were saying that he wasn't about to let her go down there by herself.

"Alright, I guess we'll go together."

"Ready, Ms. Sloane?"

Tanya nodded, and the two of them took off at a sprint towards the edge of the cliff. As she ran, she thought of how completely insane this all seemed. She was running at the edge of a cliff, facing what was very well at least a 50 foot drop to the ground. In any normal circumstance she was sure that she would have just leapt to her death, but with her new Ranger power she was almost sure that she could survive this fall.

As she fell, she let out a loud shout, as she fired the cannon, sending a hail of bronze-colored energy blasts raining down on the ground. As she landed she noticed the shocked looks of the group on the ground.

"Need some help?" She asked trying to sound cool as she shouldered her weapon.

Tommy sliced at one of the monsters as he looked towards the two who had just shown up. More Rangers? He wondered, it didn't make much sense, after all, he had been pretty sure that all the Power-coins had been claimed at this point, and the missing power-coin that Adam had been sent out into the desert to retrieve was in the hands of the girl who was standing in front of the rabbit. So who were these two people and where did they come from?

Actually, it didn't really matter to him, they needed the extra help.

In a matter of seconds the battle between the monsters and the five of them came to a close, as it seemed like the monsters had evaporated into thin air, just as they had appeared.

When Adam had realized what was going on, he frowned. He had been expecting more of a battle. It seemed like the minute that four rangers stepped into battle the whole battle had ended. Beelzalea must have called the monsters back, she either had seen that four rangers, and some other warrior had entered the battle, and she felt that that was far too many rangers for them to be facing, or she had withdrawn the monsters because they had already done what they had needed to do.

Jason exhaled a deep breath as he watched the monsters disappeared. That was one worry that he had off his mind. The battle was over, and both Tommy and Adam were still living. The only thing that he was worried about now was how things were going with the others, and Rocky. He hoped that Rocky hadn't taken advantage of his and Tommy's absence to try to kill the others. Although something told him that he had, and yet at the same time, while they stood there, something was going on...that he knew would only result in bad news the next time that he saw the others.

Even though the end of the battle was supposed to be cheerful, for them. The sight that they saw when they looked towards the girl was one that almost killed their relief.

She was covered in blood, clutching Ceres in her arms, while she cried. Ceres was faintly breathing; her body was torn to pieces.

Although, Adam could not hear a word that was being said, he judged from the way that the girl was crying, that Ceres was using her last breaths to tell the girl the truth about her.

As she spoke telepathically to her adoptive daughter, Adam noticed that the rabbit's body seemed to be slowly disappearing, as the power returned to the Power-coin that the girl clutched in her other hand.

It only took a few minutes for Ceres to return to the power-coin entirely. As she did so, she clearly said the only words that Adam knew that the girl had probably ever heard her say, not telepathically.

"I will always watch over you. My Child."

...and then she was gone.

Adam knew that the girl was probably feeling terrible right now, and to be honest, he did want to try to make her feel better about the fact that she had just lost the only thing that had even been close to being like her mother, her whole life. But, how could he? He didn't know what to do in this situation, someone that close to him had never died before. What was he supposed to do?

He couldn't just walk up to her, and simply pat her on the shoulder, and tell her it was going to be alright, that probably wasn't anything that she wanted to hear, not right now at least. Plus, he had come to find that he was really uncomfortable around people who were upset, and that sometimes made him seem a little rude, and he knew that the last thing that he wanted was to be rude.

However, Alone wasn't afraid to do what the others should have done. In a few quick strides he walked from where he was standing to where the girl sat. Kneeling down to her he put his hand on her shoulder and looked at her.

"She was like a mother to you wasn't she?"

The girl nodded as she looked up at Alone. Her dark eyes glistening with tears, that as they rolled down her face they displaced some of the dirt that covered her face, leaving streaks across her face.

Alone nodded as he looked down at the power-coin in the girl's hand. "I can say that I know how you feel to lose someone who is like family to you. It makes you feel terrible. You just wish that you could wake up and it all be a dream, yet a little part of you tells you that it's not a dream. It'll louder over time and then you'll start to come to terms with it."

From the looks of thing, he could tell that he wasn't making the girl feel any better. The truth was, he didn't really know what was to be said in this situation either, but at least he was making the attempts to make her feel better.

"So...what was her name?"

"Ceres..."

"Ah, a lovely name she had. The perfect name for your guardian spirit."

With a slight, brief smile, the girl looked down at the power-coin in her hands. Did this guy really mean it? Ceres, was her guardian spirit?

"There, a smile. Although brief, it was still a smile. That is much better."

Alone looked over towards the four rangers who stood behind him. "If my senses serve me right, I believe that the Frog was in the middle of escorting you to see Zordon, as so that you could officially become a member of the Ranger team. Perhaps, the Hawk and the Falcon would like to offer a ride to the destination, as since it is close enough, and the dream has been fulfilled, that walking the rest of the way to the destination is not a requirement."

Tommy looked over at Jason, shrugging. Well, he guessed it wouldn't hurt to give them a ride back to the Command center. Sure he had no idea what this guy was talking about by saying 'the dream has been fulfilled' but he guessed it didn't matter. As long as Jason was okay with it.

"We've only got room for five in the Jeep, so somebody is gonna have to be sitting on someone else's lap. If that's alright with you guys."

Helping, the girl to her feet and over to the group, Alone gave a brief laugh. "Won't be necessary. I will teleport from here, and await your arrival at the Command Center."

Without much debate the five of them climbed into the Jeep, and took off towards the Command center.

* * *

With a sigh, Mrs. Park set down the coffee cup that she had been drinking out of. The sun had set a while ago, enough that the sky was very dark, except for the faint edge of purple that hung around the horizon.

Getting to her feet she frowned. She had just received phone calls from Mrs. Desantos, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Cranston, and Mrs. Hillard that their children had not come home yet, wondering if their children were possibly over there. Although when they explained that they hadn't been by since yesterday, they had begun to worry.

She wondered if the same thing that had happened to Adam had happened to them. Had they all encountered that horrible snake lady and been killed?

Picking the coffee cup up once more, she took a drink. She was rather worried about her son's friends. It almost felt as if a sense of déjà vu was starting to come over her. They just mysteriously leave, with no warning, worrying their parents have to death.

As she took a drink of the Peppermint tea that was in the coffee cup, she shivered. It wasn't that the tea had gone cold, because it was still fairly warm. It was the worry that caused her to shiver. She had tried to call them all back a little while ago, and she hadn't been able to get in contact with any of them.

Looking out the window, she bit her lip. Things seemed calm, as far as she could see, and that's what worried her. Usually if there were any monster attacks, it would explain why their children hadn't gotten home, when they were supposed to.

Usually the roads would be blockaded, or some sort of emergency evacuation procedures would have been taking place, which kept the kids from getting back to their homes. But the whole town had been rather quiet, and there hadn't been any monster attacks in all day.

As she listened to silence of the house, she swore that she heard a muffled thump of something hitting the floor.

"Honey? Is...That you?" She asked as she turned towards the hallway where the source of that noise had come from.

Slowly creeping towards the hallway, she felt a terror growing in her heart, when there was no reply. She called out to her husband a couple of times as she approached the dark hallway.

However, the sight that greeted her in the hallway made her blood run cold. A monster stood in the hallway, with Mr. Park lying unconscious at its feet.

"Who are you?!"

The monster did not answer however; it just stuck his arm out, releasing violent purple bolts of electricity at Mrs. Park.

As she fell unconscious she dropped the cup of tea that was in her hands, causing it to spill out onto the tiled floor of the kitchen. In a flash of purple, before the cup of tea had even shattered against the floor, both Mr. and Mrs. Park and the monster were gone.

* * *

The silence had hung in the air for several minutes; the others did not like this at all.

"Tell Me Red Ranger. Are you afraid of death?"

"Terrified."

"Good, only a human would be terrified of death."

"...and only a parasite, such as yourself, wouldn't be afraid if I die."

"Ignorant human! Enough!"

With this, the tension that hung in the air snapped, exploding almost like a bomb, as both Sleep-walker and Rocky rushed at each other.

As Rocky rushed at Sleep-walker, he summoned all his power into the Power Sword. As he rushed at Sleep-walker, the only thing that he could hear was the beating of his own heart, and each breath he exhaled.

Fear rang clearly in his steadily beating heart as he ran, and his thoughts began to run together. He had to keep reminding himself; he was doing all of this for his friends and his family. If Sleep-walker was allowed to live, then they might as well be dead, and that was the last thing that he wanted to happen to them.

He could feel all of his Ranger Power surging through his body, as his body was covered in its red light. He knew that to the other Rangers, he was nothing more than a red blur as he rushed at Sleep-walker. Pure Energy, that is what it felt like he had become. It was as if his physical body no longer existed among this light; his soul and his animal spirit were one in this light.

It felt as if his body had been set on fire, his muscles burned with a white-hot pain as he felt the energy surging through his body, the only proof that his physical body still existed. He could hear someone letting out a horrid roar, like a wild Ape. It was only after a few seconds that he soon realized that roaring was coming from his own throat.

Just a little more energy, he thought as he tightened his grasp on the Power-sword, trying to fight back the pain that the over-load of energy was causing him.

Leaping High into the air, Rocky set his sight directly on Sleep-walker. He could feel all of the Red Ranger Power surging through his body; it was all there, nothing being held back.

Alright, Rocky thought as he leapt higher into the air, this was it. It all was going to come down to this final attack. Drawing his arm back, he hurled the Power-sword straight up into the air, before flipping around and plummeting head-first towards the ground at Sleep-walker, who had leapt into the air during the attack.

Bright flashes of red light kept occurring as Rocky rushed around Sleep-walker, kicking and punching at him rapidly. In one powerful hit he sent Sleep-walker crashing to the ground, before he followed, although not quite as quick as Sleep-walker.

When he had gotten close to Sleep-walker, He focused the energy in his body, directing it at Sleep-walker. With a loud roar, Rocky released the energy that had built up in his body; the red light that had surrounded his body left him, and shot towards Sleep-walker as he released it.

As the light raced towards Sleep-walker, it took form of an Ape.

The Red Ranger's energy collided with Sleep-walker in a great explosion. However, Sleep-walker was not down yet. As Rocky fell back to the ground, he saw a flash of red go by him. Sticking his arm out, he caught the Power-sword as it fell back to the ground. It was still glowing brightly with the power that Rocky had placed into it.

As he landed on the ground, He stabbed the sword into the ground with all the force remaining in his body. This caused a shockwave of fiery-red energy to ripple through the area, as the dimension became distorted by the energy.

Vines of flames shot up out of the ground in the wake of the Power-sword's shockwave, wrapping themselves around Sleep-walker.

Sleep-walker struggled against the vines, as they seared him; they only wrapped themselves tighter around him, burning him. With a laugh Sleep-walker looked at the Red Ranger.

"So it appears that the battle has ended, and I humbly admit my defeat. Your power has proven to be superior to mine Red Ranger."

Rocky remained silent, his eyes closed as he continued to focus upon the power that he had released, causing the vines to wrap tightly around Sleep-walker,

"I must say that it was a great honor to be slain by the power of a real noble knight. The first battle has ended in your victory Red Ranger. Pity that you won't be alive much longer to enjoy your victory. Perhaps next time, when we meet, I shall be the victor. Well, as it seems that the vines are prepared to crush me, I suppose that we are to go our separate ways for now, until death claims you, and we are to reunite in hell, continuing this fight for all of eternity."

The vines were tightening around Sleep-walker's body, their flames becoming all the more intense, Sleep-walker laughed harder. The Rangers found it rather creepy that the monster was remaining so calm, and was laughing, even though it was dying.

"..And so I bid you _adieu_, Rangers."

With this a bright red explosion occurred, spreading through the dimension, nearly blinding the Rangers, who quickly shielded their eyes against the bright red light.

Rocky exhaled his breath, the Red-Ranger power leaving his body and returning to the power-coin. As he exhaled his breath, he shivered as the pain his body had been experiencing subsided. It was finally over he thought as he fell to the ground.

Everyone was safe.

Closing his eyes as his body made contact with the cold dirt floor of the dimension; Rocky gave a weak laugh, as he looked through the clearing light to see if he could still see his friends. They were extremely blurry in his vision, but he could still seem them, running towards him as the light cleared from the area entirely.

"I guess, I sort of over did it, eh?" He joked, although he found it difficult to summon the energy for such a task.

With the last of his energy gone, Rocky took one final breath before his conscious slipped off into a peaceful, yet dreamless sleep. He could no longer feel the pain that the energy had caused him, nor could he feel the pain of his wounds. Actually, he couldn't feel anything anymore. His entire body had gone numb, as far as feeling pain had gone, as he lay there on the cold ground.

* * *

Zack and Billy were the first to reach Rocky.

"Is he dead?" Aisha asked curiously as she knelt down beside the two of them, covering her mouth to prepare herself to stifle her crying, if the news that Billy was starting to get was not a good.

Billy put his fingers to the side of Rocky's neck, checking for a pulse, and listened for any signs of breathing from the Red Ranger. After a few seconds he took his hand away from Rocky's neck and then looked over at Aisha and Zack briefly before looking back down at the Red Ranger.

"No, he's not dead...yet." He stated.

Yet? Aisha wondered. So, what Billy meant that even as they spoke, Rocky was dying? Tears began to form in her eyes, No! It just couldn't be, she didn't want to believe it.

"It's not too late, you guys, maybe Zordon and Alpha can do something!" Trini stated, trying to keep the others optimistic, after all, Billy had said that Rocky wasn't dead yet, which meant that there was still a chance that he could get the help that he needed, to increase his chances of survival.

With a nod, both Zack and Billy helped get Rocky's unconscious body to his feet. For now, they knew that they were trying to support the weight of a living human body on their shoulders; they just hopped that by the time they got to the Command Center, they wouldn't be supporting the weight of a dead human body on their shoulders.

Looking around at one another, for a brief second, they all touched the communicators on their wrist. Billy and Zack having to carry Rocky in their teleportation, since he was not able to teleport on his own. In several bright and colorful flashes the Rangers teleported to the Command Center, hoping that there was something that Zordon and Alpha could do, as far as keeping it from having another Ranger dying.

When they opened their eyes, they were in the Command Center. The Command Center sure was a comforting sight to see, that was for sure, especially when earlier they had thought that they would never be seeing this place again.

It was actually a surprise, to see that they were all fully healed of their cuts and bruises, even if they were unmorphed. It almost seemed as if they had never been through the battle at all.

Billy and Zack noticed that they were no longer supporting Rocky's weight, which worried them. They hoped that Rocky hadn't been lost somewhere between that dimension and the Command Center.

"Zordon, Where's Rocky?!" Aisha suddenly asked, when she noticed that the Blue and Silver Rangers were no longer with the Red Ranger.

"It's alright Yellow Ranger. He's in another room." An unfamiliar voice stated, causing all of the Rangers to turn their attention to a red-haired man who was standing beside one of the control panels.

"Who are you?" Kat asked curiously, as she crossed her arms. She wasn't sure if this person was a friend or enemy. Although, she was sure that if he was here, and the Command Center was still intact, and Zordon was still there, she might as well trust that he was a friend.

Zordon looked down at the Rangers, with a slight smile. It was good to see that the Rangers were alive. He had greatly feared that several of them would have been in the same condition as Rocky by the time that they had gotten back from that dimension. He had almost been sure that Sleep-walker would have been the death of them.

Aisha looked down at the ground as she paced the room. Even though She had been told that Rocky was in another room, she wasn't convinced that it meant that he was getting the help that he needed in order to help him live.

Had they dropped Rocky off in another room just to allow him to die, away from all of them because it would have just been too unbearable to allow him to die right there in the Command Center?

She tried to hold back her frustration, and fear in this whole situation the most she could. Ever since Beelzalea and Minerva had shown up, there was just one death after another. First Adam had died, and now Rocky was dying.

How many more of them were going to have to die before this was all over? Who would be the next one to die?

If only something good would come out of all of this.

Aisha sighed, yeah, right, as if some good news was ever gonna happen. It wasn't like the command center door was just gonna open up and a good surprise would just come walking into the Command Center, making things a little bit better, and cheer her up.

"Well, I guess this would explain why you and Kat missed the meeting...."

The sounds of that voice suddenly made Aisha jump and look over. That was the last voice she expected to hear in the Command Center. Looking over she was surprised to see Tanya Sloane, a girl who she knew through one of the school Organizations she was a part of standing there, she had a bronze helmet at her hip, and was wearing a bronze-colored Ranger suit.

"Tanya? What are you doing here?" Kat asked curiously as she approached her.

Tanya smiled and looked down at her suit, before looking at Kat. "I'm a Ranger now. Thanks to Alone, over there."

As she mentioned Alone's name, she pointed towards the Red haired guy who was standing behind the Rangers. He gave a brief wave as the Rangers looked towards him.

"She and Alone ran into us while we were out in the desert looking for arrow-heads, and they helped us out when we were kind of in a bind, she rode back with me and Jason." Tommy stated with a smile on his face as he stepped out from the darkness.

Jason followed not too far behind.

"Tanya told us that Ninjor had sent Alone to find her and give her a power-coin. Apparently there was one extra that wasn't on Earth." He stated as he looked towards the others.

He was glad to see them still alive. He guessed that that monster that had been possessing Rocky hadn't tried anything to hurt his friends. Although, he still held the bad feeling that something had happened, and that he should be concerned for Rocky. Of course, he wasn't surprised to see that Rocky wasn't among them.

Aisha gave a small smile. At least, Jason and Tommy had returned from the desert safely, she had remembered that monster saying that Beelzalea had other plans for the two of them; it was good to know that they had returned.

Following Jason, Aisha and the others were surprised to see someone that they did not recognize. She was a rather wild looking girl, wearing tattered clothing. She looked to be in need of a hair-cut and a bath, and a serious trip to the mall for a new outfit. Her face was a little bit tear-stained, as if she had been crying earlier, but she was looking a little curious as she looked around the Command Center as if she had never seen anything like it before.

This of course, was the initial reaction that a lot of people had, since the Command Center contained technology that didn't exist anywhere else on earth.

Giving a slight smile towards the others, the girl approached them, stepping in front of Tommy, and looking at the group.

She approached Kat first, and started looking at her curiously. She sniffed the air around Kat, and poked her in the shoulder, and picked at her hair, as if she were some sort of Alien. The whole situation was making Kat rather uncomfortable.

"You are Katherine..."The girl stated as Kat gave an uncomfortable nod, and the girl skipped over to look at someone else.

She went from Kat, to Aisha and poked at her and admired her hair curiously, as she looked at her, before stating who Aisha was. Even though, Aisha knew that this girl, who ever she was, had never met her before in her life, she found it rather odd that this girl seemed to know who she and Kat were.

As the girl turned towards Billy, after a few minutes of poking his arm, and pulling at his hair, and prodding his face, as she looked at him. She sniffed the air, and suddenly leapt backward, towards Jason, falling into a defensive stance.

"You are Billy. But I smell Wolf. I don't like wolves." She stated.

The look on Billy's face was one of complete confusion. This girl didn't even know him, and she was already saying that she didn't like him? As he looked at her, he noticed that actually her eyes held a look of pure terror.

She was...scared of him?

Biting her lip, the girl looked towards the shadows, and then held out her hand to Billy.

"...You are Wolf, only in spirit, and pose no threat. You are friend, and I trust you, unless you try to kill me and eat me, then I'll fear you."

A laugh was heard from the shadows, which caused all the Rangers, except those who had just recently entered the Command Center to jump. That laugh, it was so familiar...but it couldn't be. He was dead!

* * *

"Congratulations Billy, I think you've just found the first person on Earth who's scared of you." A joking voice stated as its owner stepped from the shadows.

As the light of the Command Center fell on the black-suited Ranger, the others looked in pure shock. The light fell on his dark hair, and his pale skin. His warm eyes were staring back at them with all the familiarity that they had the last time that they had seen him.

Adam looked back at his friends happily. It was so good to see them, even if they were looking really uncomfortable because they had just had an encounter with the girl who was supposed to be the future Purple Ranger. Every one of them looked like they were looking at a ghost. Their faces had gone pale, and their mouths hung open with shock, Aisha's eyes had become very watery.

Of course, he understood why, Tommy and Jason had finally told them that not too long ago, Minerva had shown up and told them that she had murdered him, and they all believed her, so basically them seeing him now, was like having seen a ghost.

Before he could even begin to realize how good it was for him to see all of them, Aisha suddenly threw her arms around him, she was sobbing happily.

Good news had come through after all, she thought as she sobbed happily into the black ranger suit that Adam was wearing. Sure, it didn't make up for the fact that one of her friends was still dying, but at least it meant that one of her friends was dead, as previously assumed. Which meant that maybe, Aisha still had a little hope for Rocky possibly recovering.

With a small smile, Adam looked down at Aisha; he could tell just by the look in her eyes that things had not been going so well since he had left. Even though, Trini, Zack, Jason, and Kimberly had come back to the team, it looked like things had gotten a little hectic.

"I would like you to meet, the newest Ranger to the team. Sorry, about all the poking and stuff she was doing a minute ago. She hasn't exactly been around a lot of other people." Adam stated after a few seconds, as he motioned towards the girl.

She smiled at them and waved. "Pleased to meet you." She stated cheerfully.

Alpha approached the girl and took up her hand, shaking it. "It is good to meet you, my name is Alpha 5."

The girl looked at Alpha and then pointed at Zordon. "You must be Zordon then. Adam, told me about you. You are...very strange..." She stated.

To this Zordon gave a small laugh. He knew that the girl wasn't meaning to sound rude as she had called him strange. He had been sure, that when Adam had been explaining everything to her, he had told her that he was a very strange being. There wasn't really much of any other way of describing a being like him, to anyone who had not met him before.

"To Tanya, and to you, I welcome you to the Ranger team. I am sure that the both of you will provide worthy assets to the Ranger team." He said to them.

Both of them nodded, happily as they looked up at Zordon and then looked to the others.

Alpha looked as if he had just come to find something out.

"I hope that you do not mind, but I feel that it would make things much easier on the team, and on yourself, if you had a name. Knowing that you have only been living out in the desert only after an accident, I figured that at least a the DNA of your parents would be on a file, if not your finger-prints would be on file, which could lead me to your birth records, and I have found a match, after running a scan over the information that I have picked up from you from that handshake." Alpha stated.

The girl looked hopeful. So, Alpha knew her real name? Did that mean that Alpha might be able to lead her to her parents, if they were still alive?

"The records that I found were on file in a hospital computer in Arizona, dating back to 1979. June 24. 10:32 pm." Alpha began.

"A baby girl weighing 5 pounds, 12 ounces, was born. Mother: Jin Kuriyo-Lain of Turtle Cove, California. Father: Kouji Lain of Phoenix, Arizona. The girl was given the name of Kylie Lain."

The girl smiled. So, her name was Kylie Lain? That was actually a rather nice name in her opinion. At least, it was a name. Heck, she even had come to learn the exact date and time and location that she had been born, that was even better.

Her parents, she had learned their names as well, and learned about where they had come from. It would make it all the easier for her to track them down, when she started to look for them, so that she could decide if they were living or not.

Billy held out his hand to Kylie with a smile. "Well, I guess this means, welcome to the team Kylie."

Kylie smile as she took Billy's hand and shook it. It was rather odd to hear people using her real name. She knew that she would have to get used to hearing her own name. It would definitely take a while, but she was sure she would get used to it soon.

_You hear that Ceres? That's my name....its Kylie. Kylie Lain. _She thought as she looked down at the Power-coin in her hands, as if her recently deceased adoptive mother could hear her.

* * *

"I have met all of Adam's friends....Katherine, Tommy, Aisha, Billy and Jason, Zack, Trini, and Kimberly. But, I have not met Rocky, and none of you look as Adam described him, so where is he?"

A silence rang through the Rangers as they exchanged looks of sadness. No one was really willing to begin to explain all that had happened, and the mention of Rocky's name had sort of brought an end to the happy mood that Adam's return had created.

However, Zordon did not hesitate to begin explaining things to the Rangers. He explained to them exactly everything that had been going on. He told them about how Beelzalea had created a monster that had gone into Rocky's mind and had been controlling him for the last few days, while Rocky had been imprisoned in his own mind. He told them how it was that monster, Sleep-walker, which had lured them to the dimension, and had fought them.

Looking towards Jason, Tommy gave a slightly apologetic look. He couldn't believe that Jason had been partially right about what had been wrong with Rocky in the last few days. If he had been right about that, then maybe he had been right that Rocky, or at least the monster that had been possessing Rocky, had been responsible for the accident that had happened to him a couple of days back.

"During the final attack against Sleep-walker, Rocky took on more power than his body could handle. When he released the energy into his attacks, a good deal of his life force was depleted in the attack. Since Sleep-walker was a spirit monster, even after Sleep-walker had left Rocky's body both of their life-forces were still connected and so Sleep-walker was still drawing energy from Rocky, much like a parasite."

"The only way for the Red Ranger to defeat a spirit monster such as Sleep-walker would have been to overload himself with the Red Ranger Power, although giving Sleep-walker more power, it would strangle him. Unfortunately, this required a lot of energy, which anybody could not possibly wish to house at one time. Because of this, Rocky's body was greatly damaged. Of course, this was to be expected." Alone continued for Zordon.

Turning from the other Rangers, Alone looked away and shook his head. Signaling to them that there was something about this situation that he did not understand. Something that had not been expected in this situation.

"Of course, like a parasite, Sleep-walker was not just feeding off of the Red Ranger energy, he also had established a connection to the Red Ranger's life force, and was feeding off of that. From the tests that were run, in the course of three days, Sleep-walker established a 20 percent connection to the Red Ranger's life-force. Every time he tortured him, and every time the vines that had imprisoned Rocky tightened upon him, Sleep-walker would gain more of a connection. However, According to the results, a curious spot appeared in the data." Alpha continued as he looked at a paper that showed a chart of data that the other Rangers assumed were the results of the test that had been run on Rocky.

Handing the paper to Billy, to analyze the paper, the Blue Ranger looked rather surprised.

According to the data, it showed that the day before the recent attack, there was a spike in the connection between Rocky's life force and Sleep-walker's life-force, increasing to almost a 96 percent connection from a 20 percent connection.

Knowing what they had just been told, the Rangers wondered what this could have possibly been signaling.

At this the viewing globe lit up. It showed the rangers the conversation between Zedd and Sleep-walker, in which he had given him the orders to kill the Rangers.

"We were able to collect this memory from Rocky, and from our analysis of the time that this scene occurred, we have reason to believe that the spike in the connection between Sleep-walker and the Red Ranger's life forces, was a result of a plan of Zedd's. When he placed his hand on Sleep-walker's shoulder, he sent a surge of evil energy towards him, which neither one of them knew, further connected both of the life forces." Zordon continued.

Alone crossed his arms and looked down at the ground. "Undoubtedly, we can be sure that this was Lord Zedd's plan all along. He knew what would have to be done if the situation arose that either you Ranger would be able to defeat Sleep-walker, or if under some other circumstance, Rocky were able to break out of the vines. With such a high connection, Rocky would have to basically sacrifice himself to kill Sleep-walker, unlike if the connection had just remained at 20 percent, in which he would have just had to get rid of a fraction of his life force, and could easily recover it."

Adam frowned. He had been feeling that something bad was going to end up happening. This had been the reason that he hadn't had many attacks aimed at him in the last few days while he was out in the desert, Beelzalea and the others had been focused on Rocky, in their attempts to kill him.

"So, when Rocky, defeated Sleep-walker...he only had a 4 percent life-force?" Trini asked curiously as she thought over the situation that had been explained. Four percent, that wasn't a whole lot. Even though she didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, Trini had to mention the fact. Only, a four percent life-force didn't even sound like Rocky had a chance at living.

Seeing the worried expressions that were on the Ranger's faces, Alone gave a slight smile. "No, The Red Ranger defeated Sleep-Walker with a 10 percent life force. While it is not much, he does owe the fact that he was given little more of a chance at survival, to his friends."

"You see, each time that you attacked Sleep-walker with your power-weapons, and managed to shut down Sleep-Walker's control over the Red Ranger; you decreased the connection to Sleep-walker by one percent."

"Six attacks and the vines that held the Red Ranger were destroyed. Reducing the connection by that 6 percent. If the White, Gold, Black, Bronze, and Purple Rangers had been there as well, then the connection would have gone down to an 84 percent connection...and thus giving Rocky a 16 percent life-force."

After several seconds of silence, Alone looked over at Alpha. "Speaking of the Red Ranger, I believe he ought to be check on, about now." he stated.

Alpha nodded and vanished as he went to go and check on Rocky.

Turning to the others, Alone gave a small smile. "Before I begin to tell you of whom I am...and why I am here, I expect that you would all like to have some time to introduce yourselves to one another, and as well spend some time catching up with some of your fellow team-mates."

* * *

"Sleep-walker defeated, impossible! How did the Red Ranger even escape?!" Rita shrieked as the screen that they had been watched the scene through vanished.

Zedd smirked as he tapped his fingers on the arm of the throne. It didn't matter to him that Sleep-walker had been defeated. What was important to him was that Beelzalea had probably seen the end of the battle. Her precious Red Ranger was fairly close to death as they all sat there and spoke, and there was nothing that she could do about it.

"It doesn't matter darling; Sleep-walker was merely a pawn, completely disposable. What is best is that in this game, even though he was destroyed, he took one of Zordon's knights with him. Thanks to your husband, Rita darling, that pesky Red Ranger is out of the way. I suppose this is what Zordon gets for playing this game with a board full of Knights; the sacrifices are much more valuable." Minerva stated slyly as she took a sip of wine from the glass that she held.

Who is superior now Beelzalea? Zedd thought as he looked over his shoulder towards the hallway, where he saw Beelzalea standing in the darkness and fog of the hallway, unnoticed by the others in the room. Her eyes were dark red, as they started at him.

That look, Zedd thought as he saw Beelzalea turn and disappeared into the darkness. He wondered how many times he had seen that look in his life time. It had to have been over a hundred times! It was a look of pure loathing, and hatred, filled with ill will and hateful intentions.

But, unlike most, Beelzalea did not have the look of absolute defeat that usually accompanied those eyes. She looked as if she were vowing to get back at Zedd for what he had done.

It was only a few seconds after Beelzalea had turned and left then did she reappear at the door. This time making her presence known to Minerva, and Rita.

"My Mistress Rita, My Queen Minerva. We have a guest..." She announced formally as she looked at them.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let them in!"

A few seconds later, Beelzalea entered the room followed by a tall monster, with deathly pale skin, dressed in rather fancy clothing that made him look like how someone would expect a Prince from a fairy-tale to be dressed. His hair was slicked back and a horribly violent shade of purple. His face was very slender. His chin was rather pointed.

As he approached them, he seemed to carry himself like Royalty. Taking several graceful strides, although still appearing to have a walk that made him look like the Commander of an Army. As he approached Minerva and Rita, he gave a low graceful bow, his pale lips curving into a wicked smile.

He took Minerva's hand in his first, and gave her hand a gentle kiss, causing Rita's mother to blush deeply and smile slightly.

Not but too seconds later, he turned towards Rita, taking up her hand and doing much the same thing that he had done with Minerva's hand. Although, with Rita, his lips lingered upon her hand a little longer, and his gaze remained fixed on hers for longer than it had been on Minerva.

"Who are you, and what business do you have here?" Zedd asked as he noticed that this stranger was staring at his wife, as if he were in love with her.

The man cast a smile to Rita before approaching Zedd.

"Hm. It's been awhile since we have seen each other Zedd. You haven't changed a bit. While I on the other hand..." the man stated with a dark sinister laugh. The voice that had come from this man was rather familiar. He casted a dark look towards Beelzalea who was standing behind the man with a slight smile on her face, as to hint that she was responsible for this man's appearance, purposefully to make Zedd angry.

The man gave a smug smirk as he approached the throne that Zedd had been sitting on earlier. He gracefully seated himself on the throne, and laughed sinisterly.

The man's way of sitting on the throne like that, brought back horrible flashes of a past enemy who had once sat at that very throne just like that. Even though the appearance of the man was very different, more clean and youthful and human, and he was dressed completely different from how this other enemy he remembered had dressed, the resemblance to the

"No, it cannot be! You cannot possibly be...!" Zedd stated in shock as his memory.

The man sitting on the throne conjured up a goblet in his hand. After taking a sip of the contents of the goblet he gave a small smug smile towards Zedd. Almost as if confirming that who Zedd believed he was, was exactly who he was.

"This time Zedd, I do not come empty handed. You see, as a gift to your lovely wife. I have captured the parents of the Power Rangers, and am currently holding them captive in the Forgotten Dimension." He stated with a smug smile as he took another drink from the goblet.

Zedd growled. While he was surprised that this man had managed to capture the parents of the Rangers, he was still not happy to see this guy there suddenly going off and doing whatever he pleased as far as the Rangers went. The Rangers were their problem, not this man's!

"I figure soon we can leave the Rangers a little transmission, alerting them of their parents' predicament." The man stated, before laughing evilly at his own plan.

"Who do you think you are, just walking into this castle like that? Plus, I do not recall giving you permission to use the Forgotten Dimension." Zedd stated sinisterly.

Beelzalea stepped forward and bowed to Minerva, Rita, and Zedd. "My apologies! I was the one who brought him here to the castle. I was aware that he had a score to settle with the Rangers, and therefore, I believed that it would benefit us greatly to have him in alliance with us."

The man at the throne nodded, "Yes. I still have an old score to settle with Zordon and those Power-brats; I can never forgive them for what they did to me. I will not accept defeat, especially not at the hands of a bunch of teenagers!"

"Who are you?" Rita asked slowly as she approached the man. He was starting to become oddly familiar to her now, even though she was sure that she had never seen him before.

With laugh, the man began to speak.

"I did not expect you to remember me as I look now my dear, a fact that I allowed to slip my mind, briefly. Allow me to introduce myself once more. I am the foulest emperor in the universe! Defeated twice by those entities of pure good that called themselves the Power Rangers, as I did once before my most recent defeat, I have returned to exact my revenge upon Zordon and the Power Rangers! Perhaps, you best remember me by my former name. Ivan Ooze."

With this Rita, Zedd, and Goldar let out a gasp of shock. They had dealt with Ivan Ooze in the past, the whole idea that he was even back from the dead, struck a certain amount of terror in them. None of them seemed to be too willing to work with Ivan once more, not after all that he had done to them back a long time ago.

Seeing the terror that struck them, Ivan let out a sinister laugh.

If he had managed to strike fear into Rita, Zedd and Goldar, he couldn't wait to see the reaction on the Zordon and the Ranger's faces when they finally figured out that he had returned from the dead. Of course, he should thank Beelzalea sometime later. If it were not for her, crafting a new body for him, and all, he never would have been able to return from the dead to get his revenge upon the Rangers.

"Now, Beelzalea, would you be as kind as to send a message to Zordon and the Power Rangers?" Ivan asked in his usual smug voice.

To this, Beelzalea gave a slight bow, signaling to him that she would do just that.

Turning from the room, Beelzalea smirked darkly. Her eyes flashing a dark red briefly as she passed Zedd. A dark smile crept over her lips as shadows started to appear on her face, as she walked away from the throne-room. _I hope you will get to stick around for the wedding Zedd. I would be very upset if I didn't get to watch you crumble to pieces as My Mistress Rita realizes the mistake that she had made in marrying you, and accepts My Future Lord Ivan's hand in marriage. It would be a pity if you didn't get to see the world that you worked so hard to conquer fall into the hands of its rightful rulers._

As she turned the corner, Beelzalea stopped, and placed her hand on the cold stone of the wall. The evil smile that had spread over her face, vanished, and the shadows that had appeared receded. She leaned against the wall resting her head against the stone of the wall.

Closing her eyes she let out a sigh, and a slight laugh.

_Although the life of one Ranger hangs in the balance. The 12 Ninjetti powers have finally all been united, and the Great Power is complete!_

* * *


	10. The Forgotten Deminsion Part I

Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers

(Thanks ShivaVixen, and my sis Lilith Twin for helpping me decide on what to Animal Spirit to give Tanya! I really appreciate it!)

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Chapter Ten: The Forgotten Dimension- Part I

"My name is Alone. Ninjor has sent me, not only to give the final power-coin to Ms. Sloane in order to complete the great Power, but to assist you in the trouble you are facing." Alone began as he looked around at the Rangers.

Crossing his arms, Alone looked over towards the viewing globe. "Ninjor would have come to Earth to deliver the final Power Coin himself, but he is preoccupied at the moment with other matters. So, in his place he has sent me, until he has taken care of these other matters."

"The additions of Ms. Lain and Ms. Sloane as Rangers, unites the 12 Spirits of the Ninjetti, thus completing the Great Power. As for what this means as far as the future of this battle it is uncertain. But, you must know that I am here to assist you in any way that I am possibly able to, if extra power is needed."

Billy crossed his arms. He found it odd that there would be exactly 12 parts of the Great Power.

Sensing Billy's curiosity, Alone spoke up. "The Ninjetti powers were created to work upon a basis of harmony and balance. So, an even number had to be chosen. Harmony and balance usually is the intention of most Ranger Power, especially of the Ninjetti Ranger Power. It falls sort of along the ideas of opposing forces in the universe working in harmony. The Ninjetti power is composed of two halves, working in harmony."

Turning toward the Rangers, Alone smiled. "The Falcon, The Crane, the Wolf, The Bear, the Frog, and The Ape, make up one half of the power." He stated as he looked at each of the five rangers who were present in the room as he spoke their name.

"The Owl, the Hawk, the Turtle, the Tiger, the Lion, and the Rabbit make up the other half."

"So, essentially the way that the Ninjetti power was divided, in mirror halves, yet opposite?" Trini asked curiously.

Looking at the group, she had noticed that the group that composed the first half of the power, there were only two birds, The Falcon and the Crane, like it was with the other half, where there were only two birds, the Hawk and the Owl. As well, the first half of the Power, Trini noticed that there were Four guys and Two girls, which was opposite from the other side, where there were Four girls and Two guys.

Alone nodded, "Looking among your group, it would almost appear as if the Ninjetti power were divided that way. Although that, I'm sure, was not the original intent of the Ninjetti power, since you were paired with your sacred animal, based solely upon the qualities of your personality, and soul that were most compatible with the traits of the sacred animal. Meaning that any of you could have ended up with any of the Ninjetti powers."

Giving a slight chuckle Adam looked towards the others. He couldn't imagine how the Ranger team would be if they didn't have the Ranger-power that they had now. He had thought he had been pretty bummed out whenever they had received the Ninjetti Powers for the first time when they had travelled to Phaedos. He couldn't imagine how bummed out he would have been if he had ended up with the Animal spirit that Kimberly had received!

"Individually, you have in your possession separate power-coins, and separate powers. Your power is unique to you. With this the Ninjetti powers are separate powers, within one half of the Power. Like the Power-coins, though they may be separate, they are a piece of a greater power. As the Tiger has pointed out, you are divided equally in half. Six males, and six females, thus, composing the two halves of a power. However, together all 12 powers are a piece of a Greater Power, collectively. A Power which you all share. You are a team, and therefore your power-coins are united in power, though clearly separate. So is the Power of the Ninjetti." Alone continued.

Giving a slight glance to his wrist, Alone nodded. "The Great power was divided into 12 parts, aside from the fact of creating a team that has variety of skills they could contribute to the team; it was mainly for a safety purpose. That way, if one were to die, the power would not be reduced greatly if the power were distributed say, among two, three, or four individuals."

Tanya couldn't help but feel, that the look that Alone gave to his wrist, was a signal that there was something that he was not telling them.

* * *

"Damn." Mr. Oliver stated angrily as he punched the wall. Over the last few minutes things were getting way too out of hand for him. The last thing that he remembered was seeing some horrible monster appear, falling unconscious, and waking up here.

"Face it, we're all stuck here." Mrs. Hart stated with a disdainful sigh as she paced around the area. One minute she had been in Paris with her husband, wondering how her daughter was doing, and now here she was with her daughter's friend's parents in the middle of only god knows where.

Mrs. Campbell sat down next to her husband. She didn't like this one bit. all around them was a high stone wall.

This place was just terrible. There was barely any light, and the whole area had a sickening damp feel too it, not to mention the smell was enough to suffocate someone after awhile. There was only one door here, but they had found out quickly that on the other side of it was a monster.

"The most we can do it keep up our hope that maybe the Power Rangers will save us." Mr. Cranston said, trying to keep the other parents from going insane. Although his optimism wasn't exactly helping them.

Mrs. Oliver sighed. "I doubt the Power Rangers even know if we're here. Besides we've got to be realistic about it. They're probably much more concerned about other things than some missing adults. Even then, they would have to find us." She stated crossing her arms.

"I wonder what they're planning on doing with us...." Mrs. Campbell wondered as she looked at the door.

"What I want to know is why we're the only ones who got abducted." Mrs. Desantos stated as she stood up, and began pacing the room.

It was odd that their children happened to be friends, and the majority of them (including her son) had gone mysteriously missing earlier that day, and then the next thing that they knew was that they had gotten abducted, and taken to this weird place. There had to be some sort of connection between their children's disappearances earlier this evening, and why it seemed like they had been specifically targeted by that monster they had seen before ending up here.

All of the parents wondered if there was a possibility that these monsters had kidnapped their children and were holding them hostage somewhere in this place. But still even if that was the case, why? Surely this all couldn't have just been a whole random abduction, not when they all knew each other and had at least one thing in common.

* * *

"_Hello Rangers_."

To the sound of this soft voice all of the attention suddenly turned to the viewing globe. Beelzalea's image was projected on the screen, her eyes a pure white.

"Beelzalea!" Jason growled angrily as he saw her there. He was shocked that she still had the nerve to show her face to the Rangers, after what she had done to Rocky, and to all of them.

With a small laugh, Beelzalea titled her head to the side. "Well, it is good to see you too, Hawk." She stated in a mock tone of kindness. Her eyes flashing a brief golden color.

Shaking her head she continued on. "It is good to see all of you alive and well. I congratulate you for having once more proven to be a worthy match to my mistress Rita, my Queen Minerva, and my powers, and you have my deepest sympathy about what has happened to Rocky. He fought like a brave warrior until the end, and I do hope he does make a full recovery." She stated softly.

Kimberly crossed her arms. Like Beelzalea was really sorry for what she did to Rocky. It was her fault that he had almost died, and she had the nerve to pretend to feel sorry for what happened, as if she hadn't any part in the whole thing in the first place.

"Enough of the bullshit Beelzalea get to the point. What do you want?" Tommy stated harshly as he put his hand on his hip and looked at Beelzalea with narrowed eyes.

"I do not want anything from you, Falcon. I am merely a messenger this time. My Future Lord Ivan Ooze---" Beelzalea began.

Hearing this name, caused Kimberly, Billy, Adam, Aisha, and Tommy to stare in open mouthed shock and disbelief. Had she just said the name Ivan Ooze? They could have sworn that they had destroyed him a long time ago. He had been blown to smithereens by Ryan's comet! There couldn't possibly be any way for him to be alive!

....And what was with all this "Future Lord" stuff?

"So Ivan Ooze has returned. I suspect that this is your doing Beelzalea." Zordon stated calmly.

Beelzalea nodded slightly, "Yes. It was a rather complicated task, with all the mixing and crafting...and then having to hunt down a decent piece of his energy core, which managed to survive that blast. Even with that, I know, that my Future Lord Ivan isn't exactly what he used to be. But I figure that the work was all worth it. I mean---"

"Why don't you just get to the point already?" Kimberly demanded. She was getting tired of Beelzalea wasting time by talking. Surely their enemy had contacted them for more than a friendly little chat.

Giving a slight bow, Beelzalea smirked. "There is no need to be so hasty Crane. I was about to reach my point."

With this, The screen flickered over to a scene of a dungeon cell. The sight that they saw, made the rangers gasp in surprise and terror.

"As you can see, my Future Lord Ivan, has taken your parents hostage...."

"....Well....actually. he's taken The Falcon, The Frog, The Ape, The Wolf, The Bear, and The Crane's parents hostage. Of course, that was to be expected. My Lord Ivan did this before his arrival at the castle...and only kidnapped the parents of those that he remembered. So, Turtle, Lion, Hawk, Owl, Tiger, and Rabbit...all of your parents are safe and sound."

Tommy clenched his fist. Of all the dirty tricks that their enemies could pull! Sending down monsters to terrorize them, and devising plots aimed at them was one thing. Kidnapping their parents? Well that was a completely different story. It was plainly just crossing the line.

"They are being held in the Forgotten Dimension.. You have a choice Rangers, either you can surrender now, and your parents will be released. Or you can try to go and retrieve them yourself...in which you are giving all rights for a difficult challenge.." Beelzalea began as she smiled at the Rangers.

Looking at each other, the Rangers exchanged looks wondering which option was best. Of course, like it even had to be decided. After all, they knew that they couldn't just trust a bunch of villains to just easily let their parents go if they surrendered. Plus, on top of that, surrendering wasn't something that any of them were exactly willing to do immediately.

"We're not surrendering." Tommy stated stepping in front of the rest of the group.

Beelzalea smirked, and clasped her hands together, as if she were enjoying what she was hearing.

"I figured as much. Only Six of you will be allowed to enter into the dimension. Once in the dimension, you should be warned, that you will have Twelve hours to retrieve your parents and to get out of the realm. Otherwise, they will become mindless Zombies under my Future Lord Ivan's control." She stated as she crossed her arms.

Biting her lip, Aisha looked back at the others. They all knew that if their parents were to end up under Ivan's mind control that they would undoubtedly have to face them in battle, which would mean taking the risk of killing them, or being killed by them.

Neither situation was the best in their opinions.

"I can already figure who is going to be entering the dimension, after all, it's the least the child will protect the parent from danger, just like the parent protected the child from danger. So Falcon, Frog, Wolf Crane, and Bear. You all will be entering the dimension."

"As seeing how, The Ape, is unable to come to his parents' rescue....you will be allowed to send in another Ranger in his place."

Almost immediately, Jason stepped towards the viewing Globe. "I'll go, in his place."

With a small smile, Beelzalea nodded. "I would have expected nothing else from you, Hawk."

Glancing over her shoulder briefly Beelzalea looked into the darkness of the hallway behind her. Her eyes flickered to a different color briefly, before she nodded and turned back to the Rangers. "But, seeing how you just came from one fight, and I am fairly merciful, I am going to give you until 6:00 tomorrow morning, to prepare. So say your goodbyes and rest up while you can." She stated.

With this the viewing globe went blank.

Jason took a deep breath and turned towards Alone. The look in his eyes seemed to say everything that he wanted to ask Alone. He wanted to talk to Rocky. Even though, Jason was sure that in Rocky's current condition there was no way in hell he would actually be hearing anything that he had to say to him, Jason felt the least he could do was promise him that he was going to bring his parents back. Even if it wasn't for Rocky's benefit, that he would make such a promise, it would be for his own.

Alone nodded, understanding. "You wish to speak with the Red Ranger. I understand. Although it might not be any use at the current time...I will take you to see him." He stated quietly.

As he started to lead Jason from the room, Aisha and Adam both spoke up. They were going to see Rocky with him. He was there friend after all. Of course, It didn't take too much longer afterward, for Jason and Alone, to soon be accompanied by all of the Rangers, minus Tanya and Kylie. (The both of them had decided that since they barely knew him in the first place, it wouldn't make much sense to be there with the others, and they could use the time to begin to be taught about their Ranger powers.)

* * *

"Queen Minerva's Chief Scholar and Magi has arrived." One of the monsters guarding the door announced from the other side of the door.

The door opened to the cell, causing the parents of the Rangers to jump, after the silence that had started to fall among them in the last few minutes, the sudden creaking of the door as it came open startled them.

A person entered the cell. They were all surprised by her appearance. Her white hair, fell around her shoulders, reaching almost to the middle of her back. Her eyes were pure-white. But that wasn't what really surprised them. What really surprised them wasn't her hair color, or her eyes, or her manner of dress.

"Wait...You're just a kid." Mr. Desantos spoke up in confusion as he looked at the girl who had just entered.

It was a shocking thing to see. All of them had figured that a "Chief Scholar" and such as the monster had claimed her to be, would have been a lot older than them. Instead the girl who stood in front of them didn't look to be any older than their children.

Beelzalea turned and looked at Mr. Desantos and his wife curiously. Her eyes flashed red as she looked at the both of them. Giving a small grunt, she looked down at the ground for a few minutes. Finally she shook her head and turned away from the both of them, her eyes becoming pure-white again.

"What do you want with us? Why are you here?" Mrs. Oliver asked backing up from Beelzalea as she took another step into the cell.

Beelzalea gave a small smile, as she looked at Mrs. Oliver, Her eyes becoming a slightly off-white color. "Please, Ma'am, I mean you no harm right now. Possibly by 6:00 in the evening tomorrow...I may mean harm. That is if my Future Lord Ivan decides that I will be the one to carry out his plans..but for now, I merely have come with some news."

Mr. Cranston stood up and took a step towards Beelzalea, "What news?" He asked. Although he could already tell that it was not going to be good, he already had a feeling that whatever news this girl had to give them, it couldn't be good.

"I have news of your children."

"What about Kimberly?" Mrs. Hart asked in a slight panic. What had this witch done to her daughter? She better not have harmed her.

".....They are going to be here soon." Beelzalea stated calmly as she turned from the room. Turning from the room, she gave a brief look to Rocky's parents. The brief look in her eyes seemed to show sympathy, and pity, and a slight sorrow, almost as if she were apologizing to them for something.

With out a further word She left the room.

The Rangers parents looked from one another with worried looks. They had been right that there wasn't any good news coming from that lady. Now, not only were they in danger, but their children had been dragged into this whole thing too!

* * *

It took a few minutes for the Rangers to reach the room where Rocky was. When they got there, they were greeted by a most unusual sight. This room, looked almost like a rather high-tech hospital room in itself. Computers and monitors, each with different purposes were all around the room. Some were monitoring Rocky's heart-beat, while others were monitoring his brain activity.

The only light in this room came from the blue- white glow of the monitors' screens.

After looking around the room for a few minutes, the Rangers finally caught sight of Rocky. He was lying upon a bed, The wounds that he had received from the battle, had healed, just like the wounds that the others had received during the battle had healed. All his wounds had healed, except for wounds that had been a little too severe for the teleportation to heal. Although, these were bandaged up, and were now nowhere near as severe as they had once been.

He was really a rather pathetic sight to behold. It actually made Adam feel rather sorry for his friend. He could barely stand seeing his friend hooked up to all these computers, with an oxygen mask assisting him to breathe. Things shouldn't have been this way. He shouldn't even be seeing the scene before him. Instead, he, Rocky, and the others should have been back in the main room of the Command Center, laughing the whole incident off, and preparing for the next mission.

Another question, which Adam wondered was what were they going to tell Rocky's parents?

After all they couldn't just make up a lie about where Rocky really was, because after awhile, Adam knew that Rocky's mother and father would start to get suspicious and go looking for their son, and if he wasn't where they had told them he was, then they would be angry. Of course, they just couldn't tell them the truth.

Adam could only imagine how that conversation would have gone. He wondered how they would react if they were to find out that their son was a Power Ranger. In fact, he wondered how all of their parents would have reacted if they found out that their children were super-heroes.

Jason slowly approached Rocky. Looking down he frowned and crossed his arms. Although he remained silent the look in his eyes were enough to show that everything thing he wanted to say, he was saying in his head.

It felt like a funeral. All of them standing around Rocky's bedside, with their heads hung in silence. A few tears clinging to some of their eyelashes, while tears rolled freely down the faces of others. It was actually, kind of depressing, Billy thought, as he looked at the scene before him.

This depressing silence hung among the Rangers for several minutes, before anyone spoke.

* * *

"We should start preparing for tomorrow." Jason finally said opening his eyes and turning towards the others, who all nodded.

"I was thinking, that there is no telling where the portal will land us in this dimension, so we should have the shark-cycles on standby, in case we might need them to save a little time." Tommy stated as he crossed his arms.

Nodding in agreement, the others looked towards one another. The shark-cycles would be useful. Sure, since their creation, they really hadn't gotten much use, but they figured that now would be a good time to have them on standby, in case they were needed.

Of course, getting back, might have been a little difficult, if simple teleportation didn't work, but they would come to that problem when they got to it, if it even happened in the first place. There wasn't much use to try to figure out a problem before it arose.

"Kat, Zack, Tanya, Kylie, and I will be in touch with the command center tomorrow, and keeping an eye out for any monsters that they might send down, while you guys are gone." Trini stated as she crossed her arms.

For several minutes afterward, there was a silence among the Rangers. They weren't sure how to even depart to allow themselves to get some rest for tomorrow. After all it was getting late, and they had quite a long day tomorrow. After all that they had just been through that day, they were hungry and exhausted. If they were going to be successful in this mission they would need their strength, and need to be rested enough to think things through with a clear and rested mind.

"I guess the five of us can stay over at my place for tonight." Aisha offered after a few minutes. She felt that the others probably weren't very willing to return back home that night, knowing that their parents weren't there. Kimberly could stay in her old bedroom there, since they had been using it as a guest bedroom since she had left. Tommy could sleep in her parent's room, she was sure that they wouldn't really mind since they wouldn't be there, Billy could crash on the pull-out mattress/sofa in the living room, if he was okay with that. If he wasn't then Aisha didn't mind sleeping there, and offering Billy her bed for the night. Of course, finding a place for Adam to sleep would be pretty difficult, that was if he minded sleeping in the recliner in the living room.

"Just one question. What are we going to do about Kylie tonight? It's not exactly like she has any family that we can just send her to." Adam asked after a few minutes of thought.

The others looked to each other curiously. They weren't really sure. Adam did have a point. They might have known where her parents were from, and their names, but that didn't guarantee that they were going to find them, and not within one night. On top of that there was no telling if her parents were still alive, after knowing about the accident that had caused Kylie to be separated from her parents in the first place.

"If you were to speak to Zordon, I am sure that he would be alright with Ms. Lain taking up a temporary residence here at the Command Center, until we can locate her parents and reunite her with her family." Alone stated giving a polite bow to them. They had almost forgotten that he was there, until he had spoken up.

Agreeing that that would be a good idea, the group turned to Rocky, giving him one last look as if to tell him that they would be seeing him later.

After that they returned to the main room of the Command Center, to speak with Zordon. Once the arrangements were made for Kylie to stay at the Command Center, all 10 Rangers left the Command Center.

* * *

Kylie had been left pretty much alone in the company of people that she didn't even know, and only had gotten introduced to a short time ago. This whole situation was making her nervous. Although, she had seemed to be able to do pretty well in a large group, in this small group, of just her, Alone, Zordon, and Alpha, she seemed at a total loss for words, and just felt plain awkward.

Maybe it was because a little while ago, with the larger group, she had at least one person there whom she had gotten used to. Now, she was just standing in a room with people she didn't even know at all. To make things more uncomfortable, none of them were actually human.

Alpha, Kylie had come to find out, was a robot, which was probably why she couldn't pick up a scent on him. Zordon, was a giant blue head floating in a tube, which Kylie knew couldn't be a quality that would exactly mark one as being human. Besides, Adam had already explained to her that neither of them were human.

Now, Alone, on the other hand. Kylie thought as she cast a look towards the red-haired man from across the room. His appearance would classify him as human, however, there was just something about him that made her wonder. He had a scent attached to him that was rather peculiar. It was like the other Rangers, she could smell two scents, an animal scent, and the human scent. For Alone, the animal scent was never a stationary scent.

One minute, she could smell a scent that she identified with the Falcon, the next she could smell a bear, and the next it was an Owl, or it could be a Hawk, or any other animal. It was odd really. Could he have had several different Guardian Animal spirits? Is that why this scent was so curious?

Well, it doesn't really matter, she thought.

She wondered if things would be this awkward for her tomorrow. After all, Adam and a few of the others were going off on a Ranger mission, and Kat, Trini, Tanya, and Zack had said that they were going to take her shopping for some decent clothing tomorrow. Aisha had even agreed to give her an old pair of clothes for her to wear while out at the mall. since as Kimberly had put it, her clothes weren't really acceptable to be wearing out in public.

"Ms. Lain, I would think that, knowing of the plans that you have for tomorrow, you would like to go and wash up, and please understand that I mean no insult by saying this, but after several years of living out in the desert, I would expect that you might need a little bit of assistance in cleaning up and making yourself look decent." Alone stated quietly, cutting into Kylie's thoughts as he approached her.

With a nod, showing that she was not offended by what had been said.

Alpha walked up to her. "If you'll follow me Kylie, I will help you get cleaned up. Now, come on." He said as he led her out of the Main Chamber of the Command Center.

Blushing slightly, Kylie followed.

* * *

Things just seemed so quiet in the house, Aisha thought as she rummaged through the refrigerator for something to cook up. Sure, the house was pretty crowded as it was, but they had barely said anything to one another since they had gotten there.

She guessed there was just so much that they didn't understand about this whole situation, that they were trying to figure out on their own. She had those questions floating through her mind as well.

Why was Ivan Ooze back? Had Beelzalea brought him back for the mere purpose of torturing them, by giving them one more problem to worry about. Plus, if she was able to bring Ivan Ooze back from the dead like that, Aisha hated to think of who else she could bring back from the dead to fight them.

They knew that Beelzalea was capable of killing, or at least almost killing, and she was capable of bringing back people from the dead.

Aisha shivered at the whole idea. What if Rocky didn't get better and died? Beelzalea could probably bring him back, only as their enemy. Aisha knew she didn't want to fight Rocky again. She just didn't think that she would be able to do it, not again.

Of course, why had Ivan wanted their parents? Other than turning them against them.

Did it matter why he kidnapped their parents? He wanted to use them for evil! Also, there was the fact that even though it seemed that Beelzalea was giving them some time to prepare, how did they know that she wasn't going to pull some underhanded trick, like she had done before which had led them all into this situation with Rocky, and so that it would turn out that they had no possible way of making it to their parents and out of the dimension before time ran out.

Man, Aisha just wanted to get her hands on Beelzalea and wring her neck!

With a sigh as she took a deep breath. Listen to me! she thought as she shook her head and looked down at the food she was cooking. Thinking like that isn't any way that I should be thinking! I've never thought about killing enemies like that.

She gave a slight glance over to the other two rangers who were in the kitchen with her. Ever since this whole thing had begun, they were all starting to act a little different. When Minerva had told them that she had killed Adam, (which Aisha was completely glad was a lie.) Zack had started showing some signs of unusual anger.

He had actually started talking of wanting to kill Minerva, and get revenge for Adam's death. In the short time that Aisha had come to know Zack, before he went to the peace-conference, and after he returned, she knew that Zack wasn't the type of person who would actually want to kill someone.

The thought of killing never really bothered Aisha before. After all they had just been killing off monsters, in order to defend the city. They never really had to face Rita and Zedd before, but what if they had to?

They would have to kill them. Which, wouldn't that be destroying a family? I mean sure they were evil, but they were still a family none the less. If they had to kill Rita, then Minerva and Master Vile, wherever he was, would be losing a Daughter, Rito would be losing his sister, and Zedd would be losing his wife.

If they had to kill Minerva, well then they would be killing Rita's mother. (Aisha highly doubted that Rito was related to Minerva.)

Then, if they had to fight, Goldar and all of the other henchmen around the castle, including Beelzalea, they wouldn't be any better than any of them, by killing them, they would almost be like monsters themselves.

These thoughts, these had to have been the thoughts that Ivan Ooze had wanted them to have by kidnapping their parents like this. Aisha wasn't sure, but somehow she just knew.

All of these thoughts were causing Aisha's head to hurt. She didn't want to think about them, but she just couldn't help it. It was hard not to think about, especially after all that had happened.

Tommy could see the look on Aisha's face. It was one that he didn't see often on the Yellow Ranger's face. It was one of troubled thoughts. He really didn't like seeing his friends starting to have troubled thoughts like this, especially not the night before a big mission like this.

"Hey, Adam, would you mind going and helping Billy and Kim out with setting up sleeping arrangements, and getting everything ready for tomorrow? I think Aisha and I have got it in here." He said turning towards Adam, and giving a stern expression that seemed to clearly say to the Black Ranger that he wanted to talk to Aisha alone.

Giving a look towards Aisha, and then to Tommy, Adam nodded and left the room. Before he left, he put his hand on Aisha's shoulder, and gave her a reassuring look, trying to tell her that he was there for her, and understood what she was going through, even if she hadn't said it aloud to anyone.

"Aish. You alright?" Tommy asked the minute that Adam left the kitchen.

Sighing, Aisha nodded. It was a lie, both she and Tommy knew it.

Well, he couldn't force her to tell him exactly what was wrong. If he knew anything about Aisha, it was that she was very honest, and couldn't stick to a lie for very long, unless she had to (which is the whole reason why her parents hadn't found out that she was a Ranger at this point.)

If something was bothering her she would tell them in the matter of time.

After a few seconds, Aisha finally just gave up. Turning towards Tommy she shook her head. She just wanted to talk about her problems, just one thing at a time, and with a level head, but the minute that she opened her mouth, she just couldn't help it, it all just came out at once in just a panicked rush.

"No, no, I---I'm not alright! I just don't know what's going on anymore. I mean with all that has been going on, I mean with all that happened to Rocky....and If Beelzalea can bring people back from the dead, who's to say that.....I just don't think I can do that again, Then, I start thinking about our parents...and who's to say that we'll make it in time? I mean, what if giving us time is a trick? With all that.....well I just feel like killing Beelzalea. But, that's not like me at all, and then I started thinking, well, what if we do have to kill someone? Sure, they're our enemies, but if we have to kill them, then we'd be breaking up families. I mean, I can handle the possibility of dying, but I know that my parents won't be able to. I mean look at Adam's parents......and when I starting thinking about it...."

Tears had begun to pour from her eyes as she started to talk.

Tommy hadn't seen this sort of emotion from Aisha, ever, usually Aisha was the one who was cheerful, and wouldn't cry if things were completely stressful for her. This whole situation must have really been bothering her. If all of her thoughts were starting to run together into an almost incomprehensible train of thought.

"Aisha, calm down...what are you trying to say?" He stated, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking down at her.

"I just...when I became a Ranger, I didn't ever think that things were going to end up like this."

So, that was it. All this stuff that was going on was really starting stress her out. Well, Tommy could relate to the whole situation. He was sure that most of the team could relate to how she was feeling.

However, in this situation, Tommy just couldn't think of what to say. Normally he could think of the perfect thing to say, at just the right time, usually it never failed him. However, today it seemed as if for the first time, it was failing him.

Everything that he could say, seemed to come to his mind, and just as he was about to say them he found that they got caught in his throat, and he just couldn't say anything.

It took several minutes, but finally, Tommy found something to say. Although he knew that it wasn't going to be helpful, it was something.

"Look, Aisha. I know how your feeling. All of us do. It's not like we exactly could have predicted that things would get like this. Zordon chose us to be Power Rangers--Well, Trini, Zack, Jason, and Kimberly chose you, Rocky, Adam, and Kat to be Power-rangers, but Zordon agreed to the decision---anyhow my point is, Zordon wouldn't have chosen us or allowed the others to choose you guys, if he didn't think that in some way we would be able to handle whatever situation we ended up in, and maybe this is one of the things that we're just going to have to work through."

Biting her lip, Aisha looked over. She wasn't so sure about what Tommy was saying, but she appreciated the fact that he was trying to make her feel better. After giving him a small smile and telling him that she appreciated what he was doing, she turned her attention back to the food.

* * *

Something was really odd about this whole situation, Adam thought as he helped Kimberly and Billy make up the bed in the living room. It wasn't just that Ivan Ooze was back, and had kidnapped their parents, something else was bothering him.

When Beelzalea had contacted them to tell them that their parents were kidnapped, something had been rather odd about what she had said. He just couldn't figure out what was wrong with what had been said.

He kept thinking about the whole transmission, trying to pick out what wasn't right about what was said.

_You....have my deepest sympathy.....about what happened to Rocky....._

_...._Rocky? Adam thought curiously, as the phrase was repeated in his head for the fifth time.

"She called him by his name...." He found himself saying aloud.

The suddenness of this outburst, caused Both Kimberly and Billy to look at Adam curiously. What did he mean by "she called him by his name?" Who called who by their name?

Noticing the confused looks, Adam began to explain.

"I thought something was a little off about what Beelzalea had said when she was telling us about what happened. Whenever she addressed us, or even mentioned us, she would call us by our Animal spirits. I didn't realize it until now, there was at least one time, which she didn't. When she was talking about what happened to Rocky.....she called him by his name. Of course, after this time she went back to calling him by his animal spirit."

Billy crossed his arms and looked down at the floor as he pondered over this.

There didn't seem to be any real importance of it. Other than the fact that Beelzalea had slipped, when talking. It wasn't like Beelzalea might actually have been showing hints of sincerity when she had said that she felt bad for what she had done to Rocky? Or in the fact that she was acting as if that she had no part in it? After all why would she?

"I doubt it's really important, maybe it was just a slip-up."

"I dunno, It kind of just made me wonder. It's a little suspicious to me at least."

"Well, I don't know so much about her, but you want to know who I think is suspicious? Alone, that's who. I mean.....this guy shows up out of nowhere, and claims to have been sent by Ninjor to help us, but if he knows Ninjor, how come we've never seen him, or even heard of him before this point? I mean, sure he's polite and kind, but that makes me all the more suspicious....I mean we know nothing about him!" Kimberly spoke up.

Billy and Adam nodded in agreement. Alone was quiet a mystery to them as well. Even though they had only known him a short time, they were rather suspicious of him already.

Alone, Kimberly remembered, referred to them by their animal spirits sometimes, when he wasn't calling them Mr. or Ms., or using their names.

She had the feeling, that there was something that Alone was going to have to tell them eventually. Something about his own origins that the Rangers needed to know, which she hoped that they would come to find out before they got to be in more of an alliance with Alone, and then whatever he had to tell them, might end up making things ten million times more difficult than things were already.

Even though, Alone hadn't told them anything much about himself, other than that he was in an alliance with Ninjor and the Rangers, Kimberly had the feeling that there was, in a way a connection between Alone and their enemy. She wasn't so sure, but it just felt as if she had a sixth sense, like a Ranger-ability, that just made her believe that there had to have been some link between Alone and their enemies.

Whatever it was, Kimberly was sure, that Alone probably didn't know about it. If he did, then he was probably hoping for things to get seriously complicated before he told the Rangers.

* * *

Beelzalea was walking down the hallway back to the servants quarters, a frown upon her face as she thought. Her Mistress Rita wasn't taking so kindly to Ivan Ooze as quickly as she was hoping, of course not that she really expected it, after what he had done the first time that he and Rita had met.

What she needed was a love potion, and a rather strong one at that. One that would be difficult to find an antidote for, After all she didn't want Zedd to be able to just simply pick up any type of antidote for the potion, and reverse it.

But, she thought, A strong love-potion such as the one that I need to make, could be dangerous. If a love potion is too strong, it will become a rather potent poison, and claim my Mistress's life.

As she continued to walk down the hall, she found her way to the Servants' quarters blocked by Finster. He looked as if he wanted to speak to her about something. Beelzalea already knew what he wanted to talk to her about.

"Ah, Finster! How pleasant to see you."

"Resurrecting the dead, is that why you sent the Tengu down to attack the Black-Ranger not soon after you had arrived?"

"I haven't a clue of what you are talking about. I merely sent the Tengu and Putty down to knock out the Frog, so that I could monitor his dreams, and figure out what needed to be done in order to locate the Purple Rabbit Power-coin. Although, that fell through, I wasn't quiet counting on the Frog having back-up." Beelzalea stated with a mock-tone of innocence in her voice.

Finster crossed his arms, as he looked down his nose at The white-haired Magi.

"Blood of an enemy....Beelzalea. You of all Magi, would know that there are only a few uses of it. You could have monitored the Black Ranger's dreams without his blood. You instead collected it for the potion that you used to bring Ivan Ooze back from the dead."

With a smile, Beelzalea held her hands up slightly, "Alright, fine, I shall admit to such a crime. Yes. That is why I had the Tengu collect some of the Frog's blood."

"Beelzalea, You realize that what you've done is dangerous, and not to mention highly illegal according to the law of the Magi?"

Nodding, Beelzalea turned away from Finster. Of course she was aware of how dangerous it was, but it had worked, and had been worth it. She needed Ivan Ooze as part of her plans to get Rita and Zedd apart. Sure, he wasn't exactly the same person that he had been before, but she figured that was because of the way that Ivan had died, there hadn't exactly been much of a decent energy core left.

Shrugging she, turned back towards Finster. "It's not like any of the authorities are going to find out about it. Plus, if they do, I could tell them the truth; that I resurrected Ivan, for the purpose of helping take down the Power Rangers. they'll understand." She stated with a smile.

Finster shook his head. " Beelzalea, If the Magi-council finds out that you even made the attempt to bring someone back from the dead, they'll put you on trial! If they put you on trial, they'll force you to take a potion in which, you'll be forced to tell them everything, and when they find out the truth...you could be sentenced to exile, you will no longer be able to serve Queen Minerva as her Magi. They could take away your power. Or worse, you could be sentenced to death." He stated gravely as his dark eyes looked at Beelzalea.

He hoped that all that he said of what would happen, had scared her into trying to make some effort of correcting what she had done before the Magi-council found out about it. He really didn't want to see her going into exile, or even end up dead.

After all, he had known her since she had begun her training. He could remember the whole situation that had brought Beelzalea to become one of Minerva's servants, and eventually to become Minerva's Chief Scholar and Magi.

"I am not afraid of what the Council might say or do, if they find out. They, like many Magi, listen to what may be reasonable, and if they are to exhale me, and attempt take away a power that is not even in their authority to take away from me, then so be it. But let it be known I will not simply stand by and submit to the Magi-council's will." Beelzalea stated as she crossed her arms.

Shaking his head, Finster frowned. There Beelzalea went again, being stubborn. She acted as if she didn't care what might happen to her. Unwilling to further this conversation with her, He turned and left.

"Beelzalea, Sometimes you have to think of the consequences of your actions before you even take action." He stated before he left.

With a frown, Beelzalea crossed her arms and turned and walked down the stair-way to the servants' quarters.

_Don't speak to me about consequences Finster, I know what consequences my actions produce, perhaps if anyone were to think of consequences, it would be you._

* * *

Morning had come almost too slowly for the Rangers. They had barely gotten any sleep during the night, worrying about what might happen.

But, soon there they were, all of them in the Command Center, just awaiting Beelzalea's next transmission to open the portal for them to enter the dimension.

Once, Beelzalea had opened the portal for them, nervousness began to go through the ranger's hearts. They had no idea what was on the other side of this portal. The only thing that was certain was that somewhere in the land beyond that portal, their parents were there. Anxiously awaiting their rescue.

"Good luck you guys." Zack stated giving each of the Rangers a brief hug, or pat on the shoulder. Honestly he was worried for them. There was no telling what they would run into in that dimension, knowing that Beelzalea was capable of pretty much killing someone if she wanted to. He hoped that this all wasn't some trick to trap his friends in another dimension forever.

He hoped that in twelve hours he would be getting to see his friends again, and their parents would be safe. He just hoped that once they passed through that portal, which had just appeared in the middle of the Command Center; that would not be the last time that he would ever see them.

"Keep in touch." Jason stated as he looked at the group of Rangers who were going to be staying behind. Even though he knew that he should be one of the ones who were staying behind, only hoping that his friends return safely, he had made a promise to Rocky (Even if Rocky wasn't currently aware of it) that he would bring back his parents at all costs.

With a smile, Trini nodded, telling her friends that she would do just that. As well, she told them to stay safe.

"Well, remember Kylie as she is now, because once Kat, Tanya, and Trini are done with her today, you won't be able to recognize her!" Zack joked as he looked over at Kylie, who was playing with the sleeves of the sweat-shirt that she had changed into earlier.

The Rangers, all gave a small laugh, and bid each other goodbye one last time, before stepping through the portal. Once the last Ranger had passed through the portal, it closed quickly. Obviously, Beelzalea had set the portal up to know whenever the six Rangers were going through the portal, so that it would shut immediately, not allowing any tag-along.

* * *

A cold sigh rang through the Command Center as the Rangers who were left behind quietly hoped that their friends would return.

"We'd better stay on watch today...With Six Rangers gone, I almost feel that Rita and them are going to be looking for any chance to strike. " Zack stated as he turned towards the others, who all nodded in agreement.

"I shall go with you today, If any trouble is to arise." Alone stated as he stepped towards the Rangers, giving a slight smile.

Zack could tell that part of the reason that Alone had even decided that he should come along, would be so that Zack wasn't the only guy in the group that day, so that way, whenever they had to wait around for the girls Zack wouldn't feel so awkward.

While Zack appreciated what Alone was doing, he knew that it was going to get incredibly uncomfortable if he had to spend even five minutes alone, with Alone. After all he barely knew the guy, what could they talk about? Alone probably didn't know that much of Earth, so Zack guessed that he could explain things to him if he asked. But, other than that?

"Well, Kylie," Kat stated with a sigh, and a smile, "We'd better get going, it's a two hour drive to the Turtle Cove Mall; we decided to go there instead of to the one here in Angel Grove, because we were hoping to find something out about your parents. Since your mother was from Turtle Cove, there might be some sort of record there, or something about her. We decided to go to Turtle Cove, since it is closer to Angel Grove than Arizona is."

With a smile, Kylie looked towards Kat and the others. She was grateful that it seemed that they were willing to go out of their way to help her out, by taking her and treating her like a friend, and helping her make attempts to reunite with her family.

"While you are out in Turtle Cove, keep close to your communicators, in case there is any trouble in Angel Grove that we would need to alert you of." Zordon stated as the Rangers were turning to leave.

The Rangers nodded, promising Zordon that they would.

"However, while we are gone, I think that Angel Grove will be safe. If an attack were to be launched, I would assume that it would be launched directly at us. I doubt that Rita and Zedd would want to mess with Angel Grove, Like most evil beings they are preoccupied on getting rid of their enemy." Alone stated as he crossed his arms and looked towards the other Rangers and then towards Zordon.

* * *

The portal had landed the Rangers up in the most unusual of places. It was what appeared to be a glass tunnel, which was under water. They could see the sun, distorted by the water over their heads, casting a beautiful distorted blue light all around them.

The light shown down through the barrier which protected them from the water, onto the road on which they stood on. It appeared almost to be made of crystal of some type. Fog, the color of an aurora hung around their ankles, occasionally a wisp or two would break away and be carried by the gentle breeze which blew through the tunnel and would brush up against the closest Ranger's gloved hand. giving whomever it touch a sudden, yet temporarily feeling of serenity.

It was a wonder why this dimension was called the "Forgotten Dimension" since it appeared that at one time there had to have been a civilization here that could have built the barrier above their heads, or the dungeons that they had remembered seeing their parents in. Why anyone would have just abandoned this place, none of them could understand.

However, they knew there had to be a reason behind it. Each of them had the feeling that even though this place was beautiful, it had to be deadly or dangerous in some fashion or another, that was probably the reason why it was called what it was.

According to the MPVGs, there were readings of a city just up the tunnel from them.

That was where, they all agreed, their parents must be.

"Alright you guys, We'd better get going. It doesn't look to be too much of a long drive to the city, But there isn't much telling on how large the city is, or if it's even the right place, and we've only got 12 hours to find our parents and get out of here." Tommy stated as he gripped the handle bars of the Shark-cycle and looked down the road.

The others took a deep breath as they looked towards one another, nodding.

"Alright, stick close, who knows what kind of traps this tunnel has on it." Tommy added as they sped down the road.

Billy felt uneasy about driving down this tunnel. As they drove, something just didn't seem right to him. He could feel his old fear of fish starting to come to him. It felt as if all the fish that they were seeing as they sped down the tunnel were looking at him, as if they were plotting to attack the barrier, destroy it, and drown him right there.

Odd flashes of the tunnel being flooded with water, kept coming to his mind as he drove. He could hear it's loud roar in his ears, almost as if it were roaring his name.

These visions were on and off, yet they distracted Billy. He had the worst feeling that these weren't just images created by his fear. He had a feeling that these things were going to happen, and they were going to happen soon.

Several minutes passed as Billy kept having these mental flashes.

The roaring was getting louder in his ears every time that these flashes occurred.

After a few seconds, and almost crashing into Aisha, Billy realized that the whole group had stopped in the middle of the road, and were staring down the tunnel. Even though they all had their Ranger helmets on Billy could almost tell that they were all looking curiously down the road, as if they could hear something, or saw something coming.

Looking around the area, Billy took a note that the fog that was on the road seemed to have evaporated entirely, Almost as if it had retreated in the presence of on-coming danger.

"Please tell me that I'm the only one who hears that." Adam stated looking towards the others. The tone in his voice, signaled that the noise that he heard was a source of worry.

Billy could hear it, it was the horrible squeak of an immense amount of pressure building up on glass. The air of the area was heavy, he could feel the pressure of the water above them starting to build up in the chamber where they were; the whole place had become something of a vacuum.

Thankfully, Billy thought, they were wearing their helmets and their Ranger suits, which provided oxygen in an environment where Oxygen was otherwise not present. Sort of like Billy imagine was the situation with this tunnel as of the present time.

The Squeaking was getting louder, grating to the ears like nails on a chalkboard. Following it, Billy could hear a crunch like glass shattering, being muffled by water. A low rumbling could be heard off in the distance.

Ahead of them, Billy saw the vision that he had ever since they had gotten there starting to come into reality. A wall of blackish-blue water was rushing towards them pouring into the tunnel through a large crack that was starting to open up along the roof of the barrier.

Without much hesitation, the Rangers quickly spun their shark-cycles around and took off speeding down the opposite end of the road. The wall of water was gaining on them at a rapid pace.

"This must be one of the traps that Beelzalea had set for us!" Aisha called to the others as she looked over her shoulder.

Billy had to agree with Aisha. The glass seemed to have been supportable enough when they had gotten there, until they had started to travel in this particular direction. This had to have been one of Beelzalea's traps. It was one of the only plausible explanations that he could come up with.

Ahead of them they could see the tunnel take a sharp turn, and go off into a steep uphill climb. At the end of this slope, the Rangers could see what appeared to be the gate-way to some sort of city. If they were going to get out of this, they would have to take this path, and they would have to do it quickly.

He could feel his heart beating in a panic in his chest as he saw his friends all ahead of him. Something told Billy that he wasn't going to make it to the city with the others. He wasn't going to get out of this tunnel.

The gate-way was closing, and his friends were far ahead of him, they would pass through the gate-way just fine, and if he kept driving he would make it too, but something told him that he just wasn't going to make it.

His thoughts were right, the second that they had left his head, something came flying at him passing through the glass beside him that had not shattered. It struck him in the side, causing him to veer out of the way, and be knocked off the Shark-cycle. The loud, yet muffled roar of water was the last thing that Billy remembered hearing as he hit the water with enough force to render him unconscious.

"Billy!!" Aisha shouted as she looked back towards the gate which had just closed. Billy hadn't been with them, she had seen the whole thing out of the corner of her eyes. Although she didn't know what it was that had struck Billy. She knew that it had hit him pretty hard that he had been knocked off of the Shark-cycle.

Where either one had gone from there, Aisha didn't know. All she hoped was that he survived and would make it back to them before they got to where their parents were being held. She didn't think she would be able to face Mr. and Mrs. Cranston if Billy wasn't there with the other Rangers.

They already had to figure out a cover-story to tell Mr. and Mrs. Desantos whenever they got back home and realized that their son was missing.

Having to make up an excuse for why both Rocky and Billy were missing? They could make something up, if they really tried.

However, Aisha thought as she looked back towards the gate, as the others continued on, deciding that it would be best to move on, since they didn't have time to waste, if they lost any more on the way, then they might as well just give up on trying to make up an excuse to tell their parents and just tell them the whole truth.

* * *

"How long have we been here?" Mrs. Hart asked as she stared up at the ceiling above them. Her head hurt, and she felt like she was about to go insane.

Mr. Oliver looked down at his watch and sighed, leaning up against the wall.

"Well, it was around 10:00 at night when we ended up here....and it's 6:15 in the morning now..you do the math." He stated rather irritably. It wasn't that he meant to act as he did, especially not towards his son's friend's mother. It was just that he was frustrated about being there. He had barely gotten any sleep last night, none of them had really, since the room was rather cramped so there wasn't decent room to move.

"Seven hours and fift--sixteen minutes." Mr. Cranston stated as he stood up and looked at the wall.

"It's felt more like an eternity." Mr. Park stated as he crossed his arms.

"...and if we don't get out of here soon, it's going to be an eternity before we know it." Mr. Campbell stated with a sigh.

"That is if we don't end up trying to kill each other first." Mr. Desantos said crossing his arms

"Honey!" Mrs. Desantos said in shock, that her husband had even said something like that. How could her husband even make mention of killing someone?

"I'm just saying. If we're in here for too long, I'm sure that there might be a point where we'll end up getting on everyone else's nerves...and we'll try to kill each other." Mr. Desantos replied offhandedly shrugging.

Crossing her arms, Mrs. Park shook her head. He was right. It would only be a matter of time before this irritating silence and captivity would eventually wear them all down, and cause them to go insane. When that time came, there was a good chance that they would end up snapping and make an attempt to kill each other. That was probably what had been in mind when they had gotten kidnapped, and placed in this cell in the first place.

It was terrible really, if that's why those monsters had kidnapped them, just to slowly torture them to the point of snapping, and then just sitting back and watching them fight it out. Monsters that's what they were dealing with. Monsters with the intent of making torturing them until they became monsters themselves.

That was the last thing that she wanted to happen. After all, they were all parents. What would they say to their children if word got around to them about this whole incident. If someone ended up dead by the end of this, what would they say to them?

I'm sorry your mother or father is dead because we ended up psychotic and bored and we just attacked them?

It was hard enough for her to lose her son, she imagined how hard it must have been on his friends when they had found out about his death. After all, her son and his friends were close, she could tell when they had been told the news they had taken it pretty hard.

She couldn't imagine how they would take the news of the death of one of their parents, especially when they would find out that it was their friend's parents who killed their mother or father. She could almost see how it would go when they found out news such as that. Well, whoever's parent ended up dead, they would hate the parents of their friends, which then would end up as hate by association, which would then cause distrust among them.

This distrust, would ultimately end up leading to their friendship falling apart.

But, it wasn't going to be like that. Mrs. Park thought as she looked around the room. Even if it took everything she had, she wasn't going to let something like that happen. She was going to try her best to keep everyone there sane.

* * *

The whole ride up to the Turtle Cove mall had been rather uneventful, except in the fact that Kylie kept looking out the window like an excited puppy dog, looking at everything that passed by with wide and curious eyes, asking questions.

If it weren't for the fact that they had known a little bit of Kylie's history prior to that day, they would have found Kylie's behavior to have been completely odd. Of course, knowing that Kylie had probably not seen anything of the world outside of the Angel Grove Desert, so her reaction the trip up to Turtle Cove was rather logical.

The first place that they had gone when they had reached the Turtle Cove Mall was the salon. Kat told Kylie that they were going to get her hair cut. It wasn't because her hair wasn't pretty, Kat explained, but it was mainly because at the current time Kylie's hair, having not been cut in her entire life, was long enough that it reached to her knees. Kat explained that Kylie's long hair, might end up getting in the way, during some of the unmorphed fights that they might have ended up doing.

Tanya and Trini had gone off to go and pick out some clothes for Kylie to wear.

Zack and Alone were standing in the food court. They had agreed to get breakfast for everyone, since they hadn't had anything to eat for breakfast that morning, since they had gotten up pretty early to see the others off. The girls weren't going to be out of the salon for awhile, so they figured that they had a little time before having to go up and order.

A silence had fallen between Alone and Zack, a silence which Zack sort of blamed himself for. After all, he was sure that Alone was the type of person who didn't usually start a casual conversation unless he was spoken to first.

"So...Alone....what's with the outfit? I mean aside from the Trench-coat you look like you're a member of some military organization." Zack asked uncertainly, not exactly knowing how to start up a conversation. Talking about Alone's outfit was at least an attempt at the start of a conversation.

Alone gave a small smile. "I picked up my uniform during my travels. You may not believe this, but I've worked for at least two military organizations before I began working for Ninjor.." He said as he crossed his arms.

Zack was surprised. Alone looked to be about his age, or at least not too terribly much older. To hear that he already worked for at least two military organizations in his life up to this point he was shocked. But it certainly explained a lot about Alone's personality. Alone had probably gotten used to having to follow the orders of his commander.

Alone nodded to show Zack that he could see his surprise.

"When I was much younger, I worked for a Special Military Organization on my home planet. We were sort of the Jack-of all trades Organization for the Planet's military. Which, is how we ended up with our Operation name Mechanical Intelligence Defense and Assault Squadron, otherwise known as MIDAS. All members of this squad were required to wear the uniform that I am wearing. " He explained.

"Unfortunately my work for MIDAS, was short lived, according to Earthling time, which would make it equal to about 10 years, although according to my planets time...it would amount up to roughly 1,000 years."

Zack crossed his arms and looked around the crowded food-court. So, Alone was older than he looked, at least according to his planet's time. Well, it did seem to make sense especially in the case of Alone having previous military experience, even though he looked so young.

"After MIDAS ended, me and a few friends of mine began an independent Organization, We had made the intent of this organization to primarily be based upon researching...." At this point, Alone hesitated, as if he were trying to find the words for what he was wanting to say, so that he would still be withholding information. "..a shared interest."

"However, somewhere along the way, of that Organization...we ended up as a Military Organization....which didn't last too terribly long. After that attack----" Alone began, closing his eyes, as if he were remembering the old days, back when he worked for that organization.

A brief silence had begun to set in between Zack and Alone once more. Obviously, the memory of this Organization gave Alone some pretty painful memories. Ones that Zack could tell, that even though they had occurred a long time ago, were still painful for Alone to even think about.

"We never actually wore Uniforms in that Organization, but, the trench-coat...it used to belong to an old friend of mine, from back when I was working for MIDAS and for the other Organization. However, I'd rather not discuss him, since doing so would only bring back a memory that I do not wish to shed light on at this current time." He stated in a rather stiff tone, as if he realized that Zack had actually gotten him to go into a slight depth about his own past, rather than just answer a question in a short brief statement.

Whatever had happened to Alone's friend, and to the Organization, Zack could tell that it would be pointless trying to get Alone to talk more about it, unless he was absolutely ready to do so. Which from the looks of things it would be a long time before Alone would ever be ready to talk about anything.

* * *

Billy took a deep breath as he came back around to consciousness. He was surprised to see himself still morphed, after the hit that he had taken, he was almost sure that he had sustained enough damage that he would have came out of morph.

He could feel sand beneath him, and he could smell the salty stench of the ocean, as it drifted on the air, and clung to his nose, like the sand clung to his hands.

At least he knew he was alive.

Getting to his feet, he found himself on a beautiful sunlit beach. Pristine blue Ocean stretched out before him for as far as his eyes could see. Behind him was a rather thick forested jungle. Looking around, Billy guessed that he had washed up pretty far from where the others were at.

Looking over, he was surprised to see that his Shark-Cycle had washed up on shore close to him. At least that should make things easier, as far as getting around. Even though there was no telling how far from the others he was at the moment.

"Hullo there stranger!" A voice called out to Billy, causing him to jump and turn around.

Approaching him was a couple of people.

As they drew closer, Billy noticed that they were dressed like pirates. All the way down to the eye patches and the strange hats. One of them even had a peg-leg.

"Carried in by the tide are you?" One of the people, a female, asked as she crossed her arms.

Billy nodded hesitantly, not sure if he should trust these people.

"Thems migh' strange clothes you've got on there, From what port did your ship hail from?" The man of the group asked putting his hands on his hips.

"I'm from Earth.....My name's Billy." He stated, rather hesitantly. He was getting freaked out by these people already, and he barely understood what they were saying. It felt to him as if he had just stepped into a pirate- adventure novel.

"Earth. Must be a port on the Kirin Sea, further than I've ever sailed, and Trust me I've sail most of the waters in this realm." The female pirate states shaking her head.

"No, Earth is in another dimension..." Billy began. He began to explain the whole situation to them from how his and his friend's parents had been kidnapped and were being held prisoner there, to having to go through the portal, and about how he had ended up there.

At the end of his story, both of the Pirates were looking at him in wide-eyed shock.

It seemed as if they found his whole story to be completely insane, and unbelievable. After a few seconds, they looked at each other, and started whispering. Although Billy couldn't hear a word of what was being said, he had the feeling that they were talking about him.

Probably debating on whether they should believe his story or not. If they didn't believe his story, he wondered what they were going to do. They didn't look to be very dangerous people. Of course, Billy had never actually met any pirates before in his life-time. Most of the Pirates that he had ever seen were just characters in a book, nothing more than text on a page. Those types of pirates wouldn't pose any threat to him, but these guys were for real, so there was no telling what they were going to be like.

"Well, Mr. Billy sir. It looks like you've got yourself quiet a situation, and we completely understand. A pirate ain' nothing without his crew. So, we've decided, We're going to help you reunite with your friends." The female pirate stated as she held out her hand towards Billy.

Taking her hand and shaking it, Billy came to the conclusion that with the offer that they were giving him, he might as well trust them. They didn't seem like they were meaning any harm, and had the intention of helping him. Who knows, he might actually be able to make a few new friends in this dimension.

"Th' name's Silver. Former Captain of the Marine-Maiden and this is my husband Roan, Former captain of the Icarus, We're the Captains of the Red Rose. Ruler of the Seas in this area. Nice to be in acquaintance with you Mr. Billy. Now, I suppose that since you say that you are on a time-limit, we'd better get a move-on on locating your crew." The female pirate said as she started off back down the beach.

Roan sighed and shrugged as he cast a look to Billy. He explained to him that Silver was always very impatient, especially since the crew of her last ship decided to mutiny against her and left her in one of the Port-towns that they had stopped in. He figured that her impatienceness was due to the fact of just wanting to get back out on to the Sea and get into another Adventure.

"So, When you were tellin' the story, You mentioned a Great Glass tunnel? Well, at least that gives us an idea on where we need to be heading. Only one place I know of that has a glass tunnel running through the water. a couple of miles off the shore, Won't take us but an hour to reach it." Roan stated as he looked towards Billy.

As Billy headed to the ship with the two pirates, he found that he had mixed feelings about what he was doing. Part of him was certain that these two could help him reach his friends, but part of him was uncertain on whether or not he should trust them. After all, after what had happened so far, who was to say, that they weren't working for Ivan Ooze, or Beelzalea and had been ordered try to keep him from reuniting with the others.

* * *

So far, things had not been going so well for the other Rangers. They had spent quite a bit of time, driving through the city, but had found nothing. No sign of their parents, or the place where they were being held or anything at all, which might provide even the slightest hope in the universe that they were on the right track.

Plus, the City just seemed to stretch out for miles, Their parents could be anywhere in this place.

Kimberly sighed, crossing her arms. It just didn't feel like there was any hope in this. Time would run out before they were ever going to find their parents.

"I think we should split up. We can cover more ground that way. If one of us finds the place we need to be, just get in contact with us through the communicator. Do the same if your run into any trouble." Jason stated as he looked towards the others.

Agreeing with Jason's idea, they all started to decide which way they should be going, and how they should split up.

"Aisha, you and Adam take the East and West sectors. you can go together if you want, or split up, whatever you guys want to do. Jason, Kim and I will go search the North Sector." Tommy stated as he looked towards the others.

With a nod, they divided up into separate teams and started to search the town.

Kimberly followed close behind Jason and Tommy on her shark-cycle as they took off down the road. Personally, she thought that this was all a hopeless cause, and just spreading out was only going to be a waste of time.

Although, she didn't' dare to tell that to either Jason or Tommy.

She knew that if she told them how she really felt about it, she already knew what they were going to say to her. They were going to tell her that it wasn't hopeless and that she had to keep a positive attitude about things. They would also tell her that the decision to split up was so that they could cover more ground and save more time, and make the whole process quicker.

How did they know that their parents were even in this dimension? For all they know, their parents could be in an entirely different dimension.

Kimberly found that she was torn in-between feelings. Part of her wanted to believe that their parents were here, but part of her believed that this was all a trick, and there just was no way for them to come to their parent's rescue, when they were running around a totally different dimension like chickens with their heads cut off.

She just didn't know which part of her she wanted to believe and follow at this point. If she believed the part that wanted her to believe that they were on the right track, and it turned out that her worst suspicion was right, then she would have just been building up her hope, and would be watching it get crushed, and then have to face the horrible realization that she might one day have to end up fighting her own mother, (if not her mother, then she knew that she would have to end up fighting her friends' parents.)

The whole idea was terrible. It was hard enough for her to fight her own friend, (even though now she knew that it hadn't exactly been Rocky that she was fighting.) she couldn't imagine how it would have been for her to be fighting her own mother.

Then again, if she followed the part of her that was saying this was a waste of time, and that their parents were else-where at the time and this was a trick, and they did find their parents here, then Kimberly knew she was going to end up feeling like a jerk for having even doubted herself.

Right now she didn't want to see either one of the situations happen. (Well, she did want to see them find their parents, but she didn't want to feel like a complete jerk because of it.)

She kind of wished that none of this was happening right now. She wished that she knew that her mom was in Paris and all her friend's parents were either at home or work, or wherever they would be during the day.

If none of this was happening, she knew she would totally be at the mall with Trini and the others. Right about now she would be in the make-up department trying to decide what would go better, a "Passion Pink" lipstick with "Frosted Cherry Blossom" Nail Polish and Light Pink Eye shadow and blush, or a "Starlight Pink" Glitter Lipstick with Metallic Pink Nail Polish and Pink Glitter Eye shadow, and blush. Either that or she would be in the clothing department looking for a cute outfit.

Personally she was kind of envious of them. They got to basically relax today and they didn't have to worry about their parents, they weren't having to deal with the issues that she had begun to think about while running around this place.

Of course, they didn't know Ivan Ooze, and that is why their parents were safe. If they had been Rangers back when they faced Ivan, then maybe they would be there with them right then.

With a sigh, Kimberly looked ahead. She shouldn't have even really been thinking about all this. Right now they had a mission, and she needed to keep positive and focused on the mission that they were on. It would only distract her if she got her hopes down, or started to think about what she could be doing right then instead.

* * *

Ivan looked down at Earth from the balcony of his room in the palace. Zedd and Rita, out of orders from Minerva had arranged for him to take residence up in one of the guest rooms.

Beelzalea had brought him back, He thought as he turned and looked towards the Mirror that was in the room.

The reflection that looked back at him was still a strange sight to him. This body appeared more human than his former body had, and it was something that he wasn't exactly too fond of. Of course, it wasn't exactly like he had been able to stand over Beelzalea's shoulder and tell her how to re-make his former body.

She had told him that the reason that she had brought him back from the dead, to destroy Zedd's marriage, by stealing his wife, by doing whatever was necessary.

Personally, he didn't wish to be married to someone that he absolutely loathed, such as Rita Repulsa. She was an annoyance to him. Her voice was grating to the ears, and she more than just unpleasant. On top of that she wasn't much to look at, and Ivan couldn't imagine waking up to her face every morning.

However, He understood that once Rita and Zedd were apart, and he was married to her, and once the Power Rangers had been destroyed, then it would mean that he would get to rule the world.

When that time came, He already had plans. When that time came, He would simply just get rid of Rita. Once he was married, he would be the king of this Castle and when the Earth was taken, he would be the King of it.

He would not need a Queen helping him rule. Rita would no longer be necessary, and so he could simply toss her aside. Which because their marriage would be final. He would own possession of all the worlds that she had conquered previously. With her out of the picture after their marriage, everything she owned would go to him. With it, he could work on rebuilding his empire.

...and Beelzalea? She was loyal to her "Mistress Rita" and definitely would not stand for him getting rid of her. The minute that he would try anything to get rid of Rita, she would definitely step in. Since she had brought him back from the dead, she probably knew just how to reverse what she had done.

There had to be something that he could do to keep her out of the way.

For now he would play along with what she was planning.

All the while, she would be none the wiser that the closer that he came to fulfilling her plans, the closer that she would come to meeting her demise at his hands.

After all, no one gave orders to the Great Ivan Ooze. Especially not a lowly Magi.

* * *

Silence had hung in the air between Adam and Aisha as they drove through the city.

A lingering silence, just waiting to be broken, It was something that Aisha noticed seemed to be occurring a lot when they were out on missions. It wasn't that there wasn't anything to talk about, or that any of the Rangers were finding it hard to talk to any of the others, it was just that whatever they ended up talking about, it would somehow end up on a conversation that by the time they started talking about it, (Whatever "it" was at the current time.) would only create an atmosphere of depression.

Right now, Aisha knew that no matter what conversation they started, it would end up in one of two places.

Either the conversation would somehow, find itself at the situation with their parents, and their current mission, about Ivan Ooze being back, and all that could mean.

If not there, then the conversation would work itself into a subject that Aisha really didn't want to go into right then, or ever. She didn't want to talk about what had happened to Rocky, not when the memory of what she had witnessed back there was still fresh in her mind.

Personally she'd rather be left alone with her thoughts of the situation, rather than sharing them with someone else.

Of course, it was driving her crazy that she wasn't talking to someone about it.

"I know your thinking about Rocky." Adam stated as he looked ahead.

Looking over briefly at Adam, Aisha let out a sigh. Even with her helmet on, hiding all expression on her face, it must have been obvious what she was thinking about.

Adam gave a slight grunt and shook his head. "Aisha, Rocky is my friend too, and what happened to him is something that we're all having to deal with. I know none of us really want to talk about what really happened, but if I know anything about this group, we're going to end up discussing it eventually. Just remember when you want to talk about it, I'm willing to listen and talk about it."

With a nodded Aisha looked forward silently. While she understood what Adam was saying, and appreciated the fact that he was reminding her that she wasn't alone in this situation, and could always come talk to him about things that were bothering her, she wasn't sure she really sure where to begin to talk about the whole incident.

"He's not going to make it....." Aisha stated after several seconds. It was a harsh thing to believe, but that's how she felt about it. Plain and simple, she just didn't believe that Rocky was going to ever wake up from his coma. No matter what things Zordon an Alpha were trying to make sure that he had a chance, Aisha simply believed it wouldn't be of any help.

It wasn't that she didn't want to believe that Rocky had a chance, but all the odds were against him in this situation. It was a billion to one chance that he was ever going to wake up, and if he did wake up, it was a one in a million chance that he was even going to be the same person.

After all there was no telling what damage Rocky had done to himself when he had defeated Sleep-walker.

Rocky was probably just going to end up slipping further and further into his coma, until eventually one day, he would die.

"Aisha, you might be right. But I also know that Rocky is tough, and I know that he'll try to pull through this, You know how Rocky likes tough battles."

Shaking her head Aisha frowned. Adam had a point. Rocky liked tough battles, and this was just one of those battles that he was going to have to fight. But she wasn't sure that Rocky still had any energy left in him to even make the attempt to fight the odds. He had already fought one tough battle, Aisha wasn't sure that Rocky had any fight left in him to pull through.

Biting her lip Aisha looked towards the sky briefly.

"You weren't there Adam. You didn't see the look in his eyes, when he fought Sleep-walker. He gave it everything he had to destroy Sleep-walker, and knew he wasn't going to be fighting another battle with the team. That was his last battle, I know it and I could see by the look he gave us, that he knew it too! He knew that the Red Ranger was history."

Adam frowned. He knew that he hadn't been there when all that had happened, and he knew that he should have been. Like Alone had told them, if they had all been present and fought against Sleep-walker, then Rocky would have had more of a chance. But, he couldn't be there, and he felt terrible that he hadn't been. Aisha didn't have to remind him of the fact.

"Trust me Aisha. Neither the Red Ranger nor Rocky are history. Not as long as we're alive. As long as we all still have a belief that Rocky is strong enough to pull through this challenge, Rocky will be with us all in spirit. He's one of the Rangers, and he's one of our friends. As long as we keep that in mind, and believe that he has a chance of making a recovery, He'll have a chance." Adam stated as he looked over at Aisha.

With a smile, Aisha looked over at Adam. He was right. Rocky still had a chance. The odds were against him and Aisha knew, that's just how Rocky would have wanted it. A tough battle was ahead of him, just like a tough battle was ahead of them, but as long as they kept believing that he had a fighting chance, then he would.

"Rocky is with all us in spirit.

It would probably only be a matter of time before Rocky was back and ready to fight alongside them.

Suddenly a beeping noise filled the air, causing both of the Rangers to stop their shark-cycles, and begin to look around for the source of the noise.

It took a few minutes, for them to realize that it was the MPVG that belonged to Adam that was the source of the noise. It was odd to Aisha to know that the MPVG had started beeping. Billy had said nothing about equipping the devices with alarms!

On top of that, usually the MPVG wouldn't just come on by themselves, at least they hadn't done so in the time that Aisha had used the device since she had received it.

When Adam flipped open the screen of the device, both him and Aisha were surprised to see that there was nothing but static. The beeping stopped immediately, but the screen was nothing but static.

".....Must be some faulty wiring." Adam suggested as he looked over at Aisha, who nodded in agreement.

"Let's ignore it. We can see if we can get Alpha to work with it when we get back." Aisha stated as she looked at Adam.

She was about to suggest that they have Billy take a look at it, but there was no telling if Billy was still alive, or if they ever run into him again, so the only person left that might know the slightest thing about the device, would have been Alpha.

Nodding, Adam was about to shut the device, when suddenly the screen came on. This screen caught the two Ranger's interest.

"That....that's us..." Aisha stated as she looked at the picture that came up on the screen.

Turning Adam looked around. If they could see themselves on this screen, it meant that one of the others had to be around, and were using the MPVG.

Looking towards where whoever was watching them, had to have been. Adam couldn't see anybody. Judging from the angle of this picture. Whoever was watching them had to be close, almost standing right beside them.

"This thing is really messed up.." Aisha stated as she took the MPVG from Adam and looked at it.

As she looked at the picture, She noticed that the picture on the screen showed the MPVG in her hands, almost as if the person who was watching them, was standing right beside her. She felt a cold breeze brush the side of her hand suddenly, causing her to jump and drop the MPVG.

Luckily Adam caught it before it hit the ground and shattered.

"Aisha, what happened, why'd you drop it?"

Looking over her shoulder, Aisha shivered. "Someone is definitely there. They just touched my hand..." She stated, although her voice was caught in her throat, and only escaping in a partially terrified squeak.

Adam looked down at the screen that the MPVG had switched to. It was showing a map of the area that they were in, It was showing their location, indicated by Black and Yellow dots that were close to one another.

With it, Adam took note that there was a third energy signal. One that he didn't expect to see there.

A red dot was flashing upon the screen right near them.

In a few seconds Adam watched the dot leap from being right next to them, to being in front of the street right beside them. It started moving down the street as if to tell them to come on and follow him.

"When you said Rocky was here with us in spirit....you weren't kidding were you?" Aisha asked, jokingly as she looked over at Adam, who was looking down the alleyway where the MPVG was saying Rocky's signal was heading.

Personally, neither one of them knew if they should trust this signal or not. They knew it was almost impossible that Rocky could really be sending them help, in spirit, and could possibly be leading them to the place where their parents were being held hostage. There was the chance that this could be another trap planted by Beelzalea, to lure them even further from where they were supposed to be, and could be leading them into certain danger.

But then again, they were Rangers, and had to deal with the almost absolutely paranormal every day, apart from evil space-aliens, monsters, and other magical beings, they couldn't exactly rule out events such as ghosts, or whatever this whole situation that was going on might possibly be.

Looking at each other, they wondered if they should trust this signal, it seemed to have stopped in the alleyway and was waiting for them to catch up.

Finally, Aisha got on the Shark-cycle and turned towards the alley-way. There was only one way to find out, if it was a trap set by an enemy, or spiritual help from a friend. They had to follow the signal and see where it led.

Wherever it led, they knew that they should stay close to their communicators, so that they could contact the others to tell them to get over to their location as quick as possible.

"Ready?" Adam asked as he looked over at his friend.

Aisha nodded and took a deep breath, and the both of them drove down the alleyway after the Red-Ranger's energy signal.

They both found it rather odd, the whole situation. usually, in a situation where they were unsure of what was happening, they would both have a bad feeling about what was going to happen. But this time, something told them they had made the right choice in trusting that they weren't headed for a trap.

But, for how long was that good feeling going to last? The whole thing could still turn out to be a trap, by the time they got to the end destination.

For now, they both agreed to believe the positive, although creepy, reason for this strange occurrence, and believe that Rocky was offering them help.

Maybe he'll lead them to the place where their parents were being held...

Just maybe...

* * *


	11. The Forgotten Deminsion Part II

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to power rangers.

Author's note: Sorry for the long delay between chapters! I was experience a temporary writer's block, and wasn't sure how to go about this part of the story...especially right around the end. (Mainly it was the ending of this chapter....which I still feel could have been better, but I just wasn't sure where to end this chapter.)

**

* * *

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**Chapter 11: The Forgotten Dimension- Part II**

It had been quite a long time, and the Ranger's parents had luckily been able to keep their sanity. Although the soft ticking of Mr. Oliver's watch seemed to be amplified to a loud annoying ticking sound, as it echoed off the walls of the stone cell.

It sounded to a lot of them like a bomb that was about to go off. Keeping count of the seconds until their destruction.

Where were their children? That was the real worry that was on all of their minds at the current time.

That girl, had said that their children were coming, but that was hours ago, so they had to have already been there by this point in time. So where were they?

Where they okay? Those monsters hadn't hurt them had they?

In the hours that had passed since they had received news of their children, there hadn't been any further word about them.

Surely they had to be here, wherever here was, somewhere.

"I think they were just trying to mess with our minds. Our children aren't here." Mr. Cranston stated as he got to his feet and walked towards the door.

Mr. Park stood up and walked over towards Mr. Cranston. "Maybe it is all for the best that they aren't here. I mean, would you really want your child to be here in this place, suffering through the same slow torture that we are suffering through? With our only hopes of escape resting with a group of helmeted Super-heroes who may or may not even know if we are here...and who may or may not be too preoccupied with saving the world to even make the consideration to come save us?"

"You have a point. I don't think I'd want Billy to go through this torture." Mr. Cranston stated as he turned towards Mr. Park.

He wouldn't have wanted Billy to be going through this at all. Maybe, If the truth was that Billy wasn't somewhere in that dimension, then he was safely back home and was probably worried about where his parents were. That would have been a much better thing, in Mr. Cranston's opinion; at least it would mean that Billy wasn't in any danger.

After all, Billy could always go to one of his friend's houses and see if they would take him in for awhile.

"We have to stay positive about this. Maybe the Power Rangers will come and rescue us..." Mrs. Desantos stated as she sat down on one of the beds that lined the walls of the cell.

She had sounded so sure of herself that they were going to get rescued, although she honestly wasn't so sure about it herself.

"...And what makes you so sure that they even know that we're here...and will come rescue us? huh?" Mr. Oliver almost shouted out of frustration. He had pretty much given up on all hope of being rescued. Especially by the Power Rangers. He was almost convinced that there was no way that the Power Rangers would come to their aid.

Mrs. Desantos bit her lip as she looked up at Mr. Oliver. Her fist was clenched, as if she were ready to take a swing at the White-Ranger's father.

"What makes you think that the Power Rangers even care? A bunch of adults, aren't important to them. People probably die all the time in their line of work all the time. Sacrifices have to be made, and right now, we've got to be one of the sacrifices that have to be made. What's a few deaths compared to the safety of the world huh?" Mr. Oliver shot back.

Mrs. Desantos got to her feet quickly and glared at Mr. Oliver.

"What makes you so sure, we're going to get out of this hell hole huh?"

Mr. Oliver took hold of Mrs. Desantos' shirt collar, and glared down angrily at her, although she remained silent.

"Answer me!"

"Honey! Stop it!!" Mrs. Oliver shouted trying to pry her husband's fingers off of Mrs. Desantos's shirt collar.

"Hey! I won't have you speaking to my wife like that!" Mr. Desantos shouted as he stood up and approached Mr. Oliver. He was rather unhappy that Mr. Oliver had even raised his voice at his wife. She had merely tried to keep optimistic, and suddenly he was snapping at her.

Mr. Oliver grunted and crossed his arms, and let Mrs. Desantos go. He looked down, rather ashamed of having lost his cool for a minute and gone off on someone who didn't deserve it.

"...I'm sure of it…because they came through for my son and his friends whenever they needed them." Mrs. Desantos stated quietly as she crossed her arms and looked down at the floor.

A cold chill seemed to run through the whole area when Mrs. Desantos spoke.

It was the truth. She remembered it like it was yesterday. Surely, the Parks and the Campbells knew what she was making reference too, after all their son and daughter had been with her son when it had happened.

Soon, she began to explain the whole situation to the other parents. About how it had been just before they had moved to Angel Grove, how her son and Mr. and Mrs. Park's son, and Mr. and Mrs. Campbell's daughter had gone to Angel Grove for the Ninja competition, and how they had been late getting home.

She told them about how she had found out that her son and his two friends, and their teacher Mr. Anderson, had been kidnapped by this horrible gold monkey, (as her son had described it to her when he had told her, upon being questioned about why he was so late getting back home.) How they had been told that they were supposed to be turned into slaves for this Lord Zedd guy, whenever they had gotten bitten by this snake that had suddenly come to life and all.

She told them about how her son and his friends had eventually in the end been saved by the Power Rangers. (Although when Rocky had told his mother this story, he left out the part about learning who the Power Rangers were.)

"That's why I'm sure of myself. If the Power Rangers found it worthwhile to save three teenagers and a teacher. Then maybe they'll find the rescue of a group of adults to be worth their while. If anything they must know that we're all parents...and I know to them...that's got to mean something, and make us worth a rescue attempt." She stated quietly, once she had finished her story.

Mr. Campbell stood up. "While it's not known for a fact, I'm sure the Power Rangers have families as well....and so if their mothers and fathers were in trouble they would go to their rescue, and I'm sure their parents would be very disappointed in them if they just left another group of parents to die."

* * *

Billy could see the City that they were travelling to it was a couple of miles off into the distance.

On his MPVG, he could see the faint signals of his friends. They had to be clear across the town at the point. But, that didn't disappoint Billy; at least he knew that they were there.

He was sure that none of them even knew that he was on his way. If he had any guess about what the others were thinking, they probably believed that he was dead.

Of course, with the way that he had been swept up by that water, it was likely that they believed him dead. He was actually surprised that he wasn't dead himself, to be honest.

"Don't worry there. Roan and I know this city pretty well. Used to be one of the finest Ports in the middle of the sea!" Silver stated as she looked down at the water over the side of the boat.

"That's 'cause, it's the only port in the middle of the sea!" Roan stated as he came up to the two of them.

Silver nodded, and crossed her arms as she looked over at Billy. "Used to be a bustling town, until the tidal wave came in. Killed a whole lot of the townsfolk, swept the rest of 'em to different parts of the world."

Billy could tell that both Roan and Silver had a pretty good memory of the incident, as if they were there when it had happened. It must have been pretty bad, Billy could only imagine how terrible of a disaster it could have been.

He couldn't imagine how it must have been for them to have lived through such horror. He thought it had been pretty bad when the tunnel had collapsed in on them, and he had gotten swept up by the water, he couldn't imagine how bad it must have been to be in a city and try to escape a giant wall of water that was heading towards the city.

When he was in the tunnel he would have been able to escape, since the tunnel was leading to the city, but he could imagine that it must have been terrifying to be running from a giant wall of water, knowing that no matter where you ran towards on land, you would only end up reaching ocean. When he had been in the tunnel, if he hadn't been knocked off his shark-cycle, he would have made it to the city, but the people of the city when the wall of water had been coming at them, all they had as an option was either jump into the ocean and try to out swim the wave, or end up getting swept up in the wave, which the sheer force of the impact of the wave, would probably have been enough to kill someone almost instantly.

"When that wave crashed, the Marine-Maiden and the Icarus were the only two ships that were even in the area. I ordered my entire crew to take in any survivors that were found, and take them to the mainland. They did as they were told, but so much for the kindness of that. Sure they did as they were told, but on the way out of the mainland port, my crew decided to munity, for even having given them that command. After all helping out people in trouble free of any charge, and not raiding the town for it's valuables? That apparently wasn't the pirate's code." Silver stated as she looked toward the sky.

The breeze that was guiding the ship along to the city was playing with her short, unnaturally gray hair. Something about the story that she had just told him, made Billy start to believe that maybe Silver didn't want to be a regular pirate after all. Maybe, it was just a role that she was dragged into, and she had been trying her best to change the rules that this job had laid upon her.

It kind of reminded him a lot of himself. He had never really asked to be a Power Ranger, and he had never really asked to be the brains of the group, it had been a role that he had pretty much just fallen into. So in that sense, and really in that sense only, he found that he could relate to her.

"The same thing happened to me that day, and that's how Silver and I met. Since then, we've been together, and been trying to set a good name for pirates." Roan stated looking out at the approaching town from his binoculars.

Billy gave a slight smile from behind his helmet. The way that they seemed proud of their job, and were determined to try to make a difference, even if it seemed really hopeless, (trying to change the opinions of a lot of people,) Billy knew that had to be difficult, especially when there were still people out there who were trying to ruin the work that you had done, it reminded Billy of how it was to be a Ranger.

As a Ranger, all of them were proud of the job that they were trying to do, of protecting the earth, and they were determined to keep the ones they loved, and the whole world safe, even though at times it seemed liked a hopeless cause. Especially when they were constantly undermined by the enemy, and wreck the peace that they were trying to keep.

With a frown he looked down into the water. He hoped that the others were alright. While he knew that Zack, Trini, and Kat were experienced Rangers, he knew that Tanya and Kylie were just getting used to being Rangers, and as far as he knew, didn't have much fighting ability. Plus, he wasn't too sure about this Alone guy, to know if they would have enough strength to keep protecting the city although they were short-handed.

Shaking his head, Billy looked up at the sky. What was he saying? Shorthanded? There were five people there. (Even if Tanya and Kylie weren't too experienced in fighting, he was sure that they would be able to lend a hand in protecting the town from evil.) Six, if you counted Alone.

They had started out as a team of five, and they had done their job pretty well, and they had done just as equally well whenever their five-person team turned into a six person team whenever Tommy had joined. Even before Trini had rejoined the team as the Orange Ranger and before all of the others started coming back and the team ended up going from a six-person team to a twelve-person team, they had done pretty good keeping the peace.

There was nothing for him to worry about. He hoped.

Silver gave a brief smile towards Billy as she turned and looked ahead at the destination. They were almost to the harbor, so in a few minutes they would be there.

* * *

The group had decided to stop by a small restaurant for lunch that after-noon.

Kylie was constantly touching the ends of her now reasonably shorter hair. She had changed outfits once more, this time instead of the sweat-suit that Aisha had loaned her, she was now wearing a pair of blue-jeans and a solid purple button-up t-shirt over a black tank-top.

"Well, I think you look very pretty Kylie." Trini stated kindly as she looked over at Kylie.

Quickly, Kylie blushed and said a quick word of thank-you to the Orange Ranger for the compliment.

"I just wish that Ceres was here to see me...." She stated, looking down at the table and biting her lower-lip.

Even though she had been pretty taken-aback by all the new things that she had been experiencing ever since she had been brought to the Command Center, now it was starting to wear off, and she was starting to realize that Ceres wasn't there anymore, and the depression of that fact was starting to sink in.

Tanya bit her lip and put her hand on Kylie's shoulder, before giving a warm smile to try to cheer Kylie up. "Don't worry, I bet Ceres is looking down at you know, and is very proud of you, and thinks you look very nice." She said kindly.

"After we leave here, I think we should probably head over to the Court-house library, to see if there are any records of Kylie's family." Kat suggested as she took a drink of the soda in front of her.

Nodding in agreement the others decided that would be the best thing.

The rangers went about talking as they sat there waiting for their food to be brought to the table. Alone just sat by quietly. He didn't really have much to add into the Rangers' conversations; after all they were speaking of Earthling teenager things. Things that he really didn't know too terribly much about.

As they sat there talking, Alone gave a brief smile.

This reminds me of how we all used to sit around our old hideout whenever we were all children. We'd all be laughing about all that had happened that day. Only, back then I was right there chatting happily, with the others, and it was always someone else who was sitting by quietly, he thought.

Kat and the others cast confused looks at one another, as they looked at Alone. He was just staring off into the distance, with a slight smile on his face.

They weren't sure if this was normal behavior from him. After all they hadn't known him for more than a day, and so they weren't sure if he was always like this.

Assuming that it was normal behavior, the Rangers continued talking. Deciding to ignore Alone's silence and spaced out look.

"So, what exactly would you like to order for lunch Kylie?." Tanya asked curiously as she looked over at the Purple Ranger.

Kylie thought about it for a minute, what she could really go for right now was a snake. A nicely cooked snake. After all it was starting to feel really awkward having not been out hunting at all today. It was a tough habit to break, especially since she had relied on hunting as a means of survival for most of her life.

"....Do they have snake on this menu?" she asked, looking down at the menu. She could read a little bit on the menu, (Alpha had helped her start learning how to read the night before.) but she couldn't read everything on the menu yet.

There was an awkward silence among the other Rangers as they gave Kylie a strange stare. To them it was hard to believe that someone actually ate something like snakes. Usually that was something that one would find being eaten off of a dare.

"Did I say something wrong?" She asked, looking around at the looks that her friends were giving her, sensing that something about what she had said had possibly not been the right thing to say.

Kat shook her head and put her hand on Kylie's shoulder. "Nothing's wrong with what you said. It's just that Snakes, aren't exactly something that we eat all the time, actually…there's not many people who eat snake at all as a part of a meal.." She stated, trying to be very kind and sweet, as to not seem like what she was saying was meant to upset Kylie.

"Oh, um. Okay then...I think I'll try....um...a hamburger..." Kylie stated as she gave a smile towards the others. Although her face was starting to turn rather pink out of embarrassment.

Sensing that Kylie was feeling rather embarrassed, Zack spoke up. "You know, for now Hamburgers sound good. But, Hey, maybe some other time, we can go snake-hunting!" he stated cheerfully. Although, he knew he was probably going to regret saying something like that later on.

Kylie smiled and nodded. That sounded like a great idea. She couldn't wait to do that!

* * *

Rita frowned as she paced the throne room. The arrival of Ivan Ooze was a little suspicious, not to mention unwelcome.

With a frown, She looked down at the Earth.

In recent days the castle had become rather crowded, and yet the Earth was still in the Ranger's protection.

She figured with as many people that were in the castle now, and with as much experience that some of them had in taking over planets, it was a wonder that they had yet managed to outsmart 12 teenagers who were too good and pure that it almost made one's stomach turn.

Sure, they had had put one Ranger in a coma, but that wasn't good enough.

When she had been released from captivity after 10,000 years she had vowed to take over Earth, which meant that she had to get rid of all of those who stood in her way. It would be nothing to put all the Rangers in comas, but then there was always the chance they would recover, and whatever hold she had managed to get over Earth in the time that they were out, as soon as they managed to recover they would end up breaking that hold, and she would be in the same situation they were in now.

Plus, Zordon would probably just choose new Rangers to battle against her and Zedd. No matter how many times they took down those Rangers, destroyed those powers, Zordon would send out another group of humans to find new power, and they would be put in battle against him.

She thought after trapping Zordon in a time-warp, that it would have been the end of her problems with him, but doing so seemed to have opened up a whole new set of problems for her.

So why not just kill Zordon, destroy the Command Center and get it over with?

She could do that, but she had a feeling that even if Zordon was destroyed, somehow, some way, there would still be beings out there, which would stumble across some sort of Ranger Power, and would come to fight them. Even if those Humans had to travel across time and space in order to do it, Rita knew that there would be some force that they would have to fight against before the world would be theirs.

Earth, among the evil beings of the galaxy, it was a planet that had gotten itself quiet a reputation.

Because of the constant failures of any Evil being that had tried to take over this planet, it had pretty much been deemed unconquerable.

This is why Rita and Zedd wanted to conquer it. Just to prove that it could be done. If they could control Earth, they would have done the impossible. Everyone would have to see that they were a force to be reckoned with if they could conquer the unconquerable planet.

If facing hundreds upon thousands of Rangers would be what they had to do, then they would have to do it!

Earth was going to be hers, one way or another.

* * *

Jason frowned as he looked around the area. The three had decided to take a small break.

"We really don't have much time left. According to the MPVG, we've got at least six more hours left." Tommy stated as he looked down at the device.

Kimberly crossed her arms and stomped her foot impatiently. This was so frustrating! They had already spent half of the time that they had, searching this damn place, and there wasn't even one trace of their parents anywhere!

"Let's face it. They're not here. Beelzalea's tricked us...."

Jason shook his head. Personally he didn't believe such a thing, No, he refused to believe such a thing. Their parents were there, in that dimension. They just weren't looking hard enough. They had checked the north and south sectors of the city, and found nothing.

This meant that Aisha and Adam were probably going to have better luck than they were.

There were still the East and West Sectors of the town that had to be covered.

Jason wondered if it would be best if they regrouped, and searched the East and West sectors of the city together. Maybe with the Six of them together searching those areas of the town they would be able to find their parents in under six hours, and be able to teleport out of the area.

"Maybe Aisha and Adam are having better luck than we are." Tommy stated as he looked over his shoulder back towards the city.

* * *

Fortunately, across town, Adam and Aisha were having better luck than the other three.

They had chased Rocky's signal down at least two miles of alleyways. Their path came out at a road that ran along a cliff, overlooking the ruins of one of the harbors of the town, on what the two of them could only assume was the western coast of the city. By the time that they had reached this place, Rocky's signal had vanished entirely.

There seemed to be something going on down on this harbor, with all the noise that was reaching their ears from where they stood.

Parking their shark-cycles, Both Aisha and Adam got closer to the edge of the cliff. Lucky for them there were enough large jagged rocks lining the road to keep travelers on the road from falling off the edge, that if they stayed low, no one down on the harbor would have been able to see them standing there.

Although from where they were standing, Neither Aisha or Adam could see down onto the harbor that well, and had to use the binoculars that Aisha had luckily brought with her to see what was going on down at the harbor.

There were at least a dozen monsters down there, all of them were loading large crates onto a ship that was docked here.

"What do you think is in those crates?" Aisha asked curiously in a whisper as she handed the binoculars over to Adam so that he could look down at the scene and judge what was going on for himself.

The Black Ranger shrugged. Personally he didn't feel that the contents of the crates were very important. Obviously they were supplies of some sort, and these monsters were loading them up to take them somewhere.

"Who knows, judging from the ship, wherever their headed to can't be too far away. The boat doesn't look like it's designed for long distance travel." He replied as he continued to scan the area through the binoculars.

Aisha squinted and peered out into the ocean from where she stood. From here, she could just make out the dark shape of an island not too far offshore. Something about it, made Aisha feel a little uneasy. It wasn't the uneasiness of the ominous-ness of the island. It was more out of an excitement, a lingering suspicion that, that island over there is where they needed to be.

"Adam, take a look over there at that island." She whispered as she pointed towards the island.

Looking through the binoculars, Adam could just see another harbor on the shore of this island. From it, just peering out from behind some of the trees that covered this island, there seemed to be a path leading up to a stone-castle like structure that seemed to be carved into the rocks.

It almost seemed like the perfect place for a prison. The only access to the place was by boat, from the looks of things, and the only boat going to the island was in the middle of a harbor with a ton of monsters. Adam could only guess that the island was swarming with guards as well, which would make getting in or out of the place difficult.

As the Black Ranger was looking at the island, the Yellow Ranger had already pulled out her MPVG, and was running a scan of the area. So far the only readings that she was picking up were from all of the monsters in the harbor.

From under her helmet she bit her lip. What she really needed to do was to check the island. However it was just out of range of the radar imagining on the screen.

There was a way to adjust the radar area, she thought as she started to push buttons on the device. Billy had showed her how, when he had been explaining to them all how the devices worked. First you had to turn up the radar strength, and then you had to increase the Area-scan parameters, allowing for more information to be displayed on the screen.

She just hoped that she was doing everything right, and that it would be worth it. If there was no human signal on the island, then Aisha knew that she would have just wasted her time, trying to follow a suspicision that she had.

Her heart leapt as she looked at the signal.

It was right there, eleven human signals, all in one area, inside the castle.

"Alright! We've found 'em! That's gotta be them!!" Aisha cheered happily, in a whisper as not to be heard by the monsters on the docks and end up putting her and Adam in a whole mess of trouble.

Rocky, she thought cheerfully as she looked back down at the device in her hands, I'm so glad you came through for us this time!! If you weren't in a Coma I'd kiss you, I'm so happy right now!!!

Adam nodded in agreement to Aisha's spoken cheer, and touched the communicator.

"Tommy, Jason, Kimberly..Come in."

There was static over the communicator for a few seconds as Adam waited for a response.

* * *

Finally after a few seconds it came.

"Yeah, we read you. What's the news?" Tommy's voice asked over the communicator.

"Good news I hope..." Kimberly's voice could be heard saying in the background.

"Great news....." Aisha replied for Adam as she looked over.

"We've found our parents. There's a harbor on the west sector of town, there is at least a dozen or so monsters down there loading some crates onto a ship, heading towards an island. Aisha ran a scan over the island, and we picked up eleven human signals all together. Although we can't be sure if it is them. It's worth investigating. Both of us have a pretty good feeling that we've found the place."

There was a pause on the other end of the communicator as the others gave a look towards each other, not sure if they should trust this "feeling" that their two friends were having. After all, there was a big chance that they could be wrong, and if they went out there chasing other signals, it could end up making them waste the last six hours that they had.

Jason looked down at his communicator. He was sure that they had gotten the right place as well. He just had a feeling that Aisha and Adam had found the place.

He was just hoping that this good feeling wasn't going to let him down this time, and would be the first good thing to happen in the past six hours.

If Adam and Aisha both had the same feeling that he was having about luck finally being in their favor, then maybe it was actually a pretty good sign.

Looking over at Tommy and Kimberly, Jason asked them what they thought would be best to do.

Should they trust this "feeling" and meet up with their fellow Rangers, and go check out the signal. Or should they continue searching the town and let Adam and Aisha go and check out the island on their own?

Kimberly, Jason could sense--since she still had her helmet on---was feeling rather optimistic about the situation. More so than she had been feeling earlier. So, he was pretty sure that she would suggest that they abandon searching the town and regroup with Aisha and Adam and search the location they had found.

Tommy on the other hand, Jason could tell, was about as skeptical about this as he was, if not more so.

Jason knew why Tommy wasn't so quickly willing to believe the positive outcome of the situation, Having been a leader himself, when a situation with so much uncertainty, as this one had, arose, usually the leader would be found weighing the two differing options that the situation presented, and decide which one is the best option to pursue.

Being the leader was probably one of the most stressful positions in the Ranger team. After all, the leader had to keep the whole team in mind, and the situation in mind, whenever they made their decision, and couldn't go based solely on what their feelings were.

Right now, he was sure that Tommy could tell that most of the team were optimistic about the signals that they had picked up on the scanner, and thought it would be best to go and check out the signal. But there was the possibility it could be a false signal, which was meant to distract them from their mission. This then would be compromising the mission.

But, Jason could tell that Tommy was in debate with himself. He wanted to go and check it out, because personally his own heart was nearly leaping out of his chest in excitement over the possibility that they might have found their parents.

Weighing that against the other side of these things, Tommy found that he had a few options that could be done.

One would be to tell Adam and Aisha to ignore their findings and keep looking. Which if the signals were right, then it would be a big mistake to be doing so, but if it was a wrong signal. It would be no problem.

The second would be to go and join Aisha and Adam, and go search the island together. This if the signals were right, would be a good thing and not a waste of time, but if wrong would be a big mistake.

The third option would be to let Adam and Aisha go and check out the signal on their own, while the three of them continued to comb the city, and have them report back if the signals were correct. This option, Jason knew that Tommy didn't really want to resort to, since it would involve sending in two Rangers onto an island that was, from the report, crawling with monsters. But, it would be the only way for them to figure out if the signal were correct without truly abandoning the search of the city.

Even though the White-Ranger helmet covered his friend's face, Jason could tell that Tommy's brow was furrowed in thought, and he was biting his lower lip, like he normally did whenever he had a tough decision to make.

He knew how Tommy was feeling though. After all he had been in that position himself, many times before. He remembered when Tommy had been officially designated leader, Jason had actually been a little glad that he wouldn't have to be the one to make the official team decisions anymore, which yes, he had felt a little bad for being relieved about such a thing, since it was basically like shoving off the responsibility out on Tommy.

Since then he had promised himself that he would do whatever he could to make Tommy's job as leader a little bit easier, by trying to help him out whenever he could. After all, Tommy was his best friend, and that's what friends were for, to make things a little bit easier on a friend who was having a hard time, such as having to make a decision, or lead a team.

"If it helps, we can split up again, I can go to Aisha and Adam's location and search the island with them, while You and Kimberly continue to search the city in case we find out that we were wrong." He suggested.

Tommy remained silent for several seconds. That could work, it would give Adam and Aisha a bit more help, and he wouldn't feel so uneasy about letting them go into the island alone and end up getting themselves in a lot a trouble that they can't get out of.

But, what other choice did they have?

"Well? What do you think?" Aisha's voice asked from over the communicator.

Tommy took a deep breath.

"We'll be there in a few minutes. Han----" He began but he was cut off by a scream from over the communicator.

"Aisha?!" Adam's voice came over the communicator, fading off slightly, which the three guessed was because he turned to look to see what had happened to Aisha.

"What the---Whoa!"

There was a crash on the other end of the communicator, followed by silence as the transmission was cut off.

"Aisha! Adam!" Kimberly shouted into her communicator as she tried to get in contact with the Black and Yellow Rangers, trying to make sure that they were alright, and that the scream and the sounds that they heard before the communicator transmission had cut off were just a minor issue that had come up, and that her friends and fellow Ranger weren't in serious trouble.

However, no response came in reply to relieve the Pink Ranger of her worry.

Looking to one another, the three rangers had worried looks upon their faces behind their helmets.

It was obvious to Tommy what they had to do now, if two of their friends were in trouble they had to go and help them out.

More than likely if they had been caught by some of the monsters down on the shore, they would end up being taken to the island, Tommy only assumed this because it seemed like the most logical thing, since there were already some ships that were heading out in that direction, why not take them there and strand them upon the island?

"Come on guys, let's go!" He stated as he turned the shark-cycle down the road that would lead them along the coast towards the harbor where they needed to be.

Tommy was sure that by the time that they had gotten there, that they would need to find away to get across the water and to the island, but they'd deal with it when they got there. Right now, the major issue was getting to the Western Harbor.

* * *

Billy looked up from his communicator as he heard the communicator transmission. They had just been close enough for him to hear, but not for him to transmit to them. Just ahead of him, he could see the North Coast of the City, not too far away.

He could see three shark-cycles taking off down the road, towards the west. They had probably been too worried about the situation to notice the ship that was off in the distance coming towards them.

"Silver, Roan. We need to head towards the West Harbor." He stated as he turned towards the two of them.

Roan was a the steering controls, He gave a slight smile to Billy, as he adjusted his hat. "Planning on heading there anyhow, It's the nearest harbor that wasn't completely destroyed by the tidal wave. At the rate the ship is movin, we'll get to the western harbor at least five minutes after your friends, arrive there."

Silver drew out a dagger as she looked towards the City. "Better be prepared, might run into some trouble when we get there."

Billy nodded as he clenched his fist.

Just hang on a little while guys, I'll be there soon!

* * *

So far they had spent several hours at the courthouse, looking up record after record for some mention of Kylie's mother. But, right now they had nothing, and it was likely that they weren't going to find anything.

"Look, I appreciate you guys doing this for me, but. We don't have to do this. I'm sure that my parents aren't alive, and I'm okay with living at the Command Center." Kylie stated as she closed a heavy leather-bound book that was full of old newspaper articles.

"But, the least that we can do, is confirm that they are dead. After all you were a baby when the whole incident happened, so you weren't really aware of your surroundings...and it may have escaped your mind that your parents had gotten out of the fire alive." Zack stated as he put his hand on Kylie's shoulder and gave her a wide smile, to tell her to cheer up about it.

Kylie frowned as she looked down at the cover of the book that she had just closed. It was nice that they were going to trying to help her. It really made her feel like part of the team, but she wondered if it was any use of them being here looking for old documents about her parents.

After a few seconds, the teens could hear the echoing of footsteps coming towards them. After a few seconds the person who was making the noise showed up. It was an old lady wearing a pair of silver-rimmed glasses, carrying a couple of books in her hands.

It was just the librarian, Tanya thought as she gave a slight sigh and continued to look through the book that she was searching through a minute ago. She was probably just here to reshelf some books, and would be out of their way in no time.

A few seconds passed, and the librarian had resheleved the books that she had brought back with her. She gave a brief smile to the teens as she placed the books upon the shelves, briefly glancing down at some of the books that they were reading.

"You kids must be from out of town eh?" She asked friendly as she stopped by Trini and began to look down at the books that were on the table.

Kat nodded and sighed as she looked up at the old lady. It must have looked so obvious that they were to this old lady. After all, what people who actually lived in the town would be spending so much time looking through the town records?

"I thought so, I get a lot of people hanging around this library, but until today, I haven't ever seen you kids in here. So, where are you from?" The old lady asked kindly as she adjusted her glasses.

"Angel Grove, Ma'am." Trini stated politely in response to the old Lady's question.

The lady nodded and smiled as she heard this. It was obvious that she would have given this reaction regardless of where they had told her where they were from, and was just asking to make polite conversation.

"So what brings you here to Turtle Cove? Especially to the Courthouse library, when there are so many other places here for you young kids to visit?"

The other looked around at each other unsure of how to explain what they were doing here. It would have been pretty weird to just say, We're looking for a friend of ours parents, who may or may not still be living, who used to live here, and we're trying to use this information to locate people. The old lady would think they were crazy, or end up taking the purpose of their search the wrong way, and would try to keep them from looking around, thinking that they were going to misuse the information, and that they were up to no good.

"Well, Ma'am. My friend here is looking up information on her heritage, she has been trying to get in touch with her cultural roots for awhile, and recently she learned that she may have some ancestors who have come from Turtle Cove. We were hoping that we may be able to find some information about her ancestors, in the records, or in old newspaper articles. She wanted us to come along, in order to help her out." Alone stated as he walked up beside Kylie.

The lady gave a smile. "Ah, Well, that's nice. Perhaps I can be of some help to you?" She asked as she looked around the group.

"Actually, I think it you can. Would you know where we might find some information on a family, with the last names of Kuriyo? That was my mother's maiden name, she was originally from Turtle Cove."Kylie stated as she crossed her arms.

The lady looked thoughtful for a minute, as she tried to recall any information about that name.

After several minutes of silence, the lady finally nodded.

"Well. I'm not too sure about there being any records here about them. I'm sure there are a couple. I know if you really want to find anything out about the Kuriyos, I'd suggest going down-town to the Record store. I think a Mr. Kuriyo works there. He might be able to tell you something about the family-name. He's a pretty nice guy, so I'm sure he'll be won't find it to be too much of a bother if you ask him."

With a smile Kylie looked towards the others, before looking towards the old lady.

"Thank you very much!" She said with a cheerful smile, almost unable to contain her excitement about having some lead on how she could find her family.

The old lady nodded and accepted Kylie's thanks, before looking at her watch. "Unfortunately. If you want to catch Mr. Kuriyo, you'd better get going. It's getting late, and the record store is probably going to be closing soon. Here, I'll give you the address of the record store, it should help you get there quicker." the lady stated as she took out a piece of paper and quickly scribbled down the address for them.

Bidding them, farewell and good-luck the lady handed them the paper, and they left.

* * *

The Ranger's parents had been silent for the last few minutes. This silence was starting to annoy them, and worry was starting to hang in the air over them.

It was a worry for their children; where-ever they were at the minute, mixed with a worry for themselves. That girl who had come in there awhile ago, saying that she had news of their children had said that she didn't mean them harm, but probably would by the next evening.

Looking at their watches, it was getting close to the evening. It was at least 1:00 in the afternoon. Which meant they had only five more hours left until whatever was supposed to happen, would happen.

They could hear the thudding of footsteps coming closer to them. Striking fear into their hearts as they heard the thudding get louder and louder, and the grumbling of monsters coming closer and closer.

"You don't think that they are coming to kill us do you?" Mrs. Campbell asked in a terrified whisper as she clung to her husband's arm.

They all really didn't know. Who was to say what was going to happen to them. Or even if those monsters were coming to kill them, sooner than they had all expected.

Their breaths were caught in their throats as they heard the heavy lock on the door being unlocked, and as they watched the heavy door creak open.

Before they even knew what was going on, the door had been shut again, and the lock, locked.

"And don't you two try to teleport out of there...'cause it won't work." One of the monsters stated from behind the door.

It took the Ranger's parents a few seconds to realize what had happened, until they noticed the two people who were slowly getting to their feet, even though their arms were bound together by rope.

"You, you both are Power Rangers!" Mrs. Oliver stated in shock as she helped the two of them get to their feet.

The Yellow Ranger nodded, and let out a sigh of relief as she turned towards the Black Ranger. It almost appeared to the others that she was trying to hold back some sort of excitement and relief with how her breathing was sounding.

Apparently, Aisha thought as she looked around at the others in the room. Getting captured by those monsters and taken over to that island that they had found had paid off in their luck. Their parents were all there, and for now they were safe.

The only issue that they had was on how to get out of here. Which between her and Adam that really wouldn't be much of a problem. Especially if they got in touch with Jason, Tommy, and Kimberly before they even attempted to break out to tell them where they were at, and get their help on getting everyone out, and getting off this island and out of this dimension all together.

"See? I told you the Power Rangers would come. I mean sure they're prisoners here like us, but I told you they were going to come!" Mrs. Desantos stated cheerfully, as she looked at the other parents and then to the two Rangers, and then around to the other parents.

Adam and Aisha both looked towards each other. From behind their helmets they were frowning. It had just hit them that since they had found their parents, once they got them out of this dimension they would have to break the news to Rocky's parents somehow. Which, it had just occurred to them they had no good cover story to tell them, without compromising their own identities as Power Rangers, or without telling them that their son was a Power Ranger.

Mr. Cranston noticed the ropes around the two Rangers arms, and at once began to help untie them.

Once his arms were unbound, Adam thanked Billy's dad for the help, and then tapped his communicator. It was time for them to break out of here.

"White-Ranger, Gold Ranger, Pink Ranger. Come in." He stated, slowly and carefully as not to accidentally slip and call his friends by their real names.

It took a few seconds for a response to come over the communicator.

"Oh, thank goodness, you two are all right! Where are you??" Kimberly's voice asked from over the communicator.

Aisha walked over near Adam and spoke into his communicator.

"Yeah, we're fine. We just ran into a little problem, got captured. We're on that island that we found earlier....and uh...we found those kid's parents, and they seem alright."

There was an excited squeal over the communicator from Kimberly as she heard this news.

"We've got another five hours left, and I'm not sure how long it's gonna take us to get out of here. We'll definitely need some back-up." Adam finished as he looked at the group of parents, and then to the door, trying to think of some way to bust down the door, and help them escape.

"Well, we'll be there as soon as possible, to back you guys up. Just hang tight until we get there." Tommy's voice came over the communicator, as the transmission ended.

Adam turned towards the parents, and crossed his arms.

"So? I guess we're just going to wait here until your friends get here." Mrs. Hart asked as she sat down, heaving a sigh. She didn't really feel too much up to waiting to get out of here anymore. What she really wanted to do, was get out of here and find her daughter.

The yellow Ranger nodded in response to Mrs. Hart's question. She took a seat on the floor next to Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, explaining to the others that it should be awhile before their friends arrived, Until then they would just have to stay here and try to keep calm, until the scanner on the MPVG, showed that the others were close, before they tried to break out.

The parents all let out sighs. Well, at least this waiting wasn't going to be as annoying as it had been before the two Rangers had shown up. At least with this wait there was some hope that they were going to be getting out of this place.

Mrs. Oliver bit her lip as she looked towards the two Rangers. It was hard to believe that there were two Super-Heroes there to rescue them! This was so exciting, just like meeting a celebrity! Which in a way, she thought, it actually was the same thing. Since the Power Rangers were something of celebrities in Angel Grove, and all over the world.

Except the one thing that made the Power Rangers different from any regular celebrity, was the fact that no one knew the Ranger's real names. With a normal celebrity, everyone knew their real name. (or at least the alias name that they went by.) With the Power Rangers, people only talked about them by what color suit they wore.

Of course, the Power Rangers had to have secret identities; if everyone knew who they were, it would be all to easy to put the blame of all the damage caused on them, and force them to pay the costs of the damage that was caused, that was if the town ever turned on them, and started to unappreciate what the Rangers were doing for them.

She couldn't imagine how the Ranger's parents must have felt about their children being responsible for all of the damage in the town. She knew that the Ranger's parents must know that their kids were super-heroes. If their family was anything like her family, their kids wouldn't be keeping secrets from their parents.

It was one thing that she was glad about, her son wouldn't keep secrets from her. If he happened to get home a little later than normal, He would give a legitimate reason for while he was late. After all, Tommy was a very open and honest boy, and so if there was anything that he was doing, Mrs. Oliver knew that he would tell her about it.

"So, Mr. Black Ranger, I was wondering. Are the rumors true, that you guys are aliens?" Mr. Cranston asked curiously as he looked towards the two Rangers, who were sitting across from him.

Adam looked over at Aisha and let out a laugh. They had heard this rumor a lot, people really seemed to believe that they were aliens. Of course, he could see how they would believe such a thing. No one knew who they were. They worked with Technology and weaponry that was way beyond any technology or weaponry that currently existed on Earth, and battled against monsters, so it was easy to assume that they were aliens.

"No...no. We're human." Aisha stated with a laugh as she looked over at Mr. Cranston. There was a huge smile on her face, even though none of them could see it. She was just so happy that all of their parents were alright, and she was trying to suppress the urge to just bust out in laughter, and just fling her arms around her parents in joy.

"All except for our Mentor, who gave us our powers, of course." Adam added in as he crossed his arms and leaned up against the wall.

Mrs. Cranston looked over to her husband. She could tell that he was probably feeling like a little kid in a Candy store. Her husband, much like their son, loved Science Fiction stuff, and to hear about the existence of Aliens, to be talking with people who were super-heroes, who had powers and weapons straight out of a comic book, she knew that her husband was just full of questions.

She just hoped that he wouldn't accidentally ask an offensive question to them, or ask too many questions to where the Rangers would get annoyed with him.

Actually, she couldn't wait until they got out of this place. She couldn't wait to tell Billy all about getting to meet the Power Rangers. She was sure that he would love to hear about it, and would probably be asking half of the same questions that his father was currently asking the two Rangers right now.

"The Green Ranger, what exactly happened to him. When you guys were Television a while back, the White-Ranger kind of seemed to be dodging the question about the Green Ranger...I'm just curious, what is the real story about that?" Mr. Oliver asked curiously as he looked towards the two Rangers.

Both of them looked at each other, a little uncertainly. Tommy had become the White Ranger before they had joined the team, so they really only had the explanations that the others had given them, in order to explain it, although they trusted that their friends would give them a truthful account of what happened to cause Tommy to lose his Green Ranger Power and have him become the White Ranger, they weren't sure exactly if all of it was right.

But, they began to explain what they knew, about the situation. Making it seem as if they had been there, since as far as anyone knew, there had never been a Power Transfer, in which the Black, Yellow, and Red Rangers had been replaced by three other people.

After they had finished their story, all of the parents were looking in surprise. So, the White-Ranger was formerly the Green Ranger. Well, that seemed to make a lot of sense. Of course, why didn't he just simply make that explanation back when he had been asked?

Well, Mr. Park thought as he looked over. He guessed it didn't really matter. Hearing about the White-Ranger, and how he had formally been the Green-Ranger, wasn't any big issue. Although it was a pretty interesting story.

* * *

Tommy and the others had arrived at the cliff above the harbor, where Adam and Aisha had contacted them from.

They knew it was the place, because the Black and Yellow Shark-cycles were still parked there. When they had gotten kidnapped, whoever had kidnapped them had not found the Shark-cycles worth moving.

Down below them, they could still see that the harbor was still full of monsters, it was going to be a tough battle if a battle had to occur, but they figured that they could get down there. The only problem, they would have, after they got down there would be getting across the water to the island.

After sending the Shark-cycles back to the Command Center, seeing that after they got over to the island there wouldn't be much use for them, the three of them looked down at harbor, trying to make a plan of action.

Tommy and Jason were both trying to formulate a plan that would be a safe and logical route that wouldn't cause for too much trouble, and involved a stealth approach. Kimberly wasn't completely paying attention to the plan to begin with.

She was just too anxious to get to her mom and her friend's parents, and save them and get the hell out of there that she could barely keep her attention on the plan. As far as she knew right then it involved sneaking into some crates and hoping that the monsters would load those crates onto the boat before it left.

While it was a great idea, and she had to hand it to the two of them for coming up with the idea, there were several flaws in the plan that she could point out without even really paying attention to it. One, they had to hope that whatever was in the crates wasn't lighter than the three of them were, because if the monsters picked up a crate that was heavier than normal they would definitely check to see what the deal was.

Two, there was a big possibility that these guys were almost done sending things over there, since there weren't that many ships still in the harbor here, and there were still several crates, which meant that most of it could be for another shipment, which only god knows when that would be, by then it would be too late.

Three, that last ship could be heading elsewhere, which would throw off their plans entirely.

Finally there was a Fourth, and rather major issue that the Rangers would have to deal with. Getting down to the harbor would be difficult. From here, Kimberly could obviously see that the path right into the harbor was blocked by monsters. Surely it was almost time for them to take a break, and many of them were waiting by the entrance to the harbor for the others to get the last of the crates loaded into the ships and send them off, before leaving.

Kimberly was so anxious to hurry up and get this over with that it was starting to get on her last nerve. She wished that Tommy and Jason would hurry up and decide what they were going to do. If they didn't decide soon, She was just about ready to charge in there by herself and take care of business the noisy and difficult way.

After all if she got captured, there was a good chance that she would end up in the right place anyhow, and from there they would just have to bust out.

As the seconds ticked by, and no definite plan of action had come from either Jason or Tommy, Kimberly finally lost her patience.

"Forget it, we're wasting time by sitting here. I'm going on ahead. You guys can either come with me, or stay up here and keep wasting time." She stated impatiently as she took out her weapons and looked down at the harbor from the cliff.

Tommy and Jason both looked up at Kimberly curiously. She had to be kidding saying that she was going to rush in alone. That was almost like certain suicide!

She wasn't seriously thinking of doing something as crazy as going down there alone was she? They knew that she was eager to get this all over with, they were too, but that didn't mean that they were eager to go rushing into a herd of monsters without even a plan or a thought.

Backing up from the edge of the cliff, Kimberly prepared herself to take the plunge off the cliff and down onto the harbor.

It wasn't too terribly high of a cliff, at least not for a Power Ranger. From the looks of the Cliff, Kimberly thought as she backed up. Compared to the Megazord, which they had fallen out of several times and survived, the cliff would probably come up to about one of the knees of the Megazord.

That was no real fall for her, at least while she was morphed. She knew that if she was unmorphed she would not have been even thinking about making that fall, especially not into a sea of monsters.

But, she was morphed, as so it was okay.

As she got into a sprinting position, Tommy and Jason suddenly leapt up getting in her way. She was serious about going down there, and she was going to leap off the cliff to get there.

"Kimberly are you crazy?! You're not seriously planning on jumping down there are you?" Jason asked.

"Of course!" Kimberly replied in a slightly annoyed voice. Tommy and Jason were going to try to keep her there, making up a plan whenever they were running out of time.

Well she wasn't going to let that happen.

"You do realize that it is a cliff, leading down to like a ton of monsters, don't you?" Tommy asked.

"....Well duh Tommy! I know it's a cliff. Do you have a quicker way of getting down there?" Kimberly shot back sarcastically as she frowned from behind her helmet.

Tommy and Jason were just about to take hold of Kimberly's shoulder to keep her from running at the cliff and going down. The both of them together would have been enough to keep her from going off the edge of the cliff, and possibly put her back in her right mind to allow them to make a decent plan of action.

Unfortunately for them, Kimberly had a plan of getting past the both of them. She took off at a run towards the two of them, and leapt up into the air, right onto their shoulders, before making an additional leap off of their shoulders and right down off of the cliff.

Jason and Tommy looked at each other rolling their eyes behind their helmets. This place had definitely gotten to Kimberly. She had just done something completely crazy, and willingly threw herself into danger.

"Well....." Tommy begun with a sigh as he looked down the cliff, where he could see Kimberly in a fight with a lot of monsters, surprisingly fending them off pretty well on her own.

"It looks like when Kimberly makes a decision the only thing we can do is follow." Jason finished, as he looked down the cliff and then to Tommy, with a slight smirk on his face behind his helmet. He had to hand it to Kimberly, when she had her mind set on something, she usually followed it through, despite how dangerous and crazy it was, or how much trouble it would cause for other people.

But, Personally, he didn't like this reckless side of Kimberly that had suddenly showed itself.

"Ready?" Tommy asked as he backed up from the cliff. After all, they might as well follow Kimberly from where she had dropped down from, after all it would put them closer to Kimberly and would keep them from having to hectically fight through the crowd of monsters to find Kimberly.

Jason nodded as he backed up from the cliff and pulled out his weapons.

Taking a deep breath the two of them rushed at the edge of the cliff, diving down into the crowd of monsters, swinging furiously as they knocked monsters out of their way to keep up with Kimberly, who was already pretty far ahead of them.

* * *

A lot of the monsters that had been down on the harbor before they had gone down, had already been cleared out by Kimberly, leaving the two Rangers with less monsters to deal with than they had expected to fight.

"Kim!! There you are!" Tommy stated as he ducked out of the way of one of the monster's attacks, and bumped into Kimberly, who was fending off attacks from another set of monsters.

"'bout time you two got here..."

With the pause that Kimberly had taken to speak to Tommy, one of the monsters grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back, in an attempt to break it, and if not break it, apply enough pressure to her arm to cut off circulation to her brain and cause her to lose her consciousness and keep her from attacking long enough for the monster to make an escape.

Tommy broke away from the fight that he was in, seeing that Kimberly was in trouble and it looked like she needed some help.

Seeing that the White Ranger had temporarily dropped his defenses, three of the monsters charged at him, tackling him to the ground with the force of a team of football players. The sudden tackle had managed to knock the wind out of Tommy.

Watching one of her fellow Rangers getting attacked, did not make Kimberly happy at all. With an angry grunt, She managed to use her free arm, and elbow the monster that had her other arm behind her back, while at the same time stepping on the monster's foot, causing him to howl in pain and let go of her, allowing her to make her way over to Tommy to help him up.

Jason was a few feet away from them fighting off the monsters that were attacking him the best he could. A lot of the monsters seemed to fall pretty easy when he struck them with the scythe. However, after awhile, he was starting to feel that these monsters were multiplying.

It seemed like for every one that he took down four more would pop up in it's place, building up, until he found himself surrounded by a huge swarm of these monsters. He was beginning to run out of strength trying to fend off the monsters.

From where he was, he could see that at least Tommy was starting to tire out as well. He and Kimberly were back to back fending off enemies that had decided to target them. Although, Kimberly seemed to still be standing.

Whatever it was that was keeping her going, Jason kind of wished that he had it too, if it was keeping Kimberly at full strength, or at least making her appear that way.

This must have been another one of the traps that had been set by Beelzalea and Ivan Ooze, to keep them from their mission.

Since more and more monsters kept popping up every time that they defeated them, they would be here for hours trying to fight them off, which because of that would run the time out that they had.

As Jason sliced at another enemy, and dodged out of the way of one, he bit his lip. there had to be some way to get past this trap. After all if there was one thing that he knew, it was that traps always had their ways of being deactivated, incase if the people who set up the trap might have fallen into it.

Right now, he was too distracted by fighting that he couldn't even begin to look for the way to deactivate this trap, or at least how to figure out how to get past it.

The three of them continued to fight, unaware that a ship was nearing the harbor.

* * *

From the deck of the ship, Billy could see that something was going on there, and whatever it was he just had the feeling that Tommy, Jason, and Kimberly were right in the middle of it.

And according to the readings on the MPVG, he was right.

"I haven't seen the harbor this busy since the tidal wave, and from the looks of things, I'd say that your friends are looking for trouble.." Roan stated as he looked towards the harbor.

Billy let out a slight laugh as he pushed a few buttons on the device in his hands, as he made an attempt to get an accurate reading about the battle, assuming that from the way that he kept seeing the monsters regenerating that it had to be some sort of trap.

"You could say that we're the sort of people that don't go looking for trouble. We're more of the sort of people that trouble seems to find, no matter what we do."

Silver pulled out the pistol that she had in a holster that was on her belt, with a smirk she looked over at Billy. The sparkle in her eyes seemed to say that she was anxious to join in on the fight and help out Billy's friends. It had been awhile since she had been on an adventure that involved so much danger, and she was eager to get into the hustle and bustle of a chaotic fight, where they'd be out numbered.

* * *

Jason coughed as he tried to regain his breath, after being repeatedly punched in t he gut by one of the monsters that he had been fighting.

Right now, he kind of wished that Billy was here. Billy was always good at figuring out how to deactivate traps, or finding the enemy's weak-point while he was fighting.

Billy's intelligence would really be useful in this situation.

At least by now in this situation, Billy would be telling them how to shut down the trap.

Jason could almost hear Billy, if he had been there. He would have been saying something like, "There are four pillars all around the harbor there. They're generating the monsters. If you guys shut down the two that are located near you guys, I'll take care of the others closer to the water."

Which, Jason found that Billy saying something like this had he been there, almost a little weird, since the idea that he had heard Billy saying was just something he was sure he had made up off the top of his head, and wasn't the source of the trap. But it almost sounded like it was logical.

Plus, he had heard Billy's voice in his imagination a little too clearly...

"Guys, did you hear me?"

Hearing this Jason suddenly realized it wasn't just in his imagination that he was hearing the Blue Ranger. Billy was actually contacting them through the communicators.

"Yeah, we hear you. Do what you've got to do. We'll try to get to the other pillars." Tommy replied for Jason, seeing that he was a little too busy to get to his communicator right then.

While the three of them were glad to hear from their friend, and were eager to find out where he had been, and how he had survived that whole incident earlier, they knew that they would have to save their happy reunion until later, when all of the monsters were eliminated.

From where he was standing Tommy could see one of the Pillars. It didn't seem like it would be too difficult to take down. The only thing that would be difficult would be actually getting to the pillar.

But, Tommy had an idea on how to get the pillar down, without having to try to bust through this crowd.

"Saba, buddy, you ready to do a little demolition work?" Tommy asked as he pulled Saba from the holster where it usually rested, looking at the Tiger-head that was crafted on the sword.

In response to the question Saba began to speak,

"Of course, White Ranger, as you wish!"

"Alright, thanks buddy!" Tommy stated with a nod as he hurled the weapon towards the pillar.

As Saba went flying through the air, carried by his own magic as if he were being carried by some sort of ghost, he sliced through the enemies that were in his way. Upon his arrival at the Pillar, he levitated into the air, out of the reach of any of the nearby monsters, and turned towards the stone Pillar.

Lasers shot from the tiger's eyes as it hovered in the air, the lasers slowly began to blast away bits of the tower.

After several minutes of this, a loud cracking noise filled the air, followed by a loud crash, as dust flew up into the air, from the fallen pillar.

In response to this, the three rangers took note that less monsters were appearing up in the place of the enemies that they had defeated. A fact that they were feeling relief about. One less monster to battle.

Taking a deep breath, Jason channeled some of this Ranger Power into his weapon. This infusion of ranger Power made the blade of the Scythe begin to glow a golden color. With a grunt he threw all of his force into his attack as he tossed the scythe at the nearby Pillar.

The scythe flew through the air slicing through the pillar that was opposite of the one that had just fallen. Upon it's contact with the pillar, a loud cracking noise filled the air, as the second pillar came toppling down in a cloud of dust.

Like a boomerang, the scythe came sailing back to Jason, who caught it and continued fighting without a moments' hesitation.

With the two pillars on their side knocked down, it was clearly noticeable that the crowd of monsters on the dock were beginning to thin out.

Now, if only Billy could get the other two knocked down, Jason thought as he looked towards the other end of the dock.

He could just see the other two pillars visible, over the shoulders of the monsters who were attacking him. He wondered how exactly Billy was going to be able to take down those pillars on his own.

After all, he was sure that Beelzalea or Ivan Ooze, had set up this trap to know whenever a Ranger had set foot on the dock and were coming close to a pillar. The monsters were sure to turn to him and start attacking him, to keep him from destroying the pillars.

"You guys had better get down, we're starting the raid on this harbor, and for the sake of it all, you don't want to be standing in the path when these cannons start going off! We're not the best shots in the world, so we don't want you getting your selves blown in half if we miss the target." An unfamiliar voice rang through their communicators.

While they didn't recognize this voice, they figured that hearing that cannons would be going off; they had better follow the command that whoever was speaking was giving them.

* * *

"All hands on deck!!" Silver shouted as she ran around the deck.

At the sound of her voice, the entire crew of the ship appeared from below the deck.

Billy had met some of these people earlier when he had gotten on the ship, but a lot of these people he was actually surprised by their appearance on this ship. He had no idea where they had come from. He had not seen him before.

"All artillery-Division Soldiers, Prepare the cannons, and don't fire until given Captain Roan's orders!" Silver's voice boomed over the grumbling of the crew that had appeared. Billy watched as all the members of the "artillery-Division" saluted to Silver and then scatted around the deck as they began to load the heavy cannonballs into the cannons along the side of the ship that was facing the harbor.

Turning to the remaining people, Silver began to speak.

"All the rest of you, prepare your weapons, and be on standby. When I give the signal we'll be going down to the harbor. It'll be our job to be a clean-up crew, taking out all the monsters. If you see some people down there that are dressed like Billy here, do not attack them!"

With this a roar came from the remaining people, as they began to scatter around the deck getting their weapons ready.

Looking around at the people on the ship. Billy decided that he couldn't just sit around here and do nothing at all. These guys were doing so much to help out friends of someone that they had just met not but a few hours ago,

As a way of helping out, Billy began helping load the cannons. One after another.

Although he had been to several museums and war-reenactments, and had studied all about weaponry such as Cannons, he found it surprising actually how heavy a cannonball was! With enough momentum applied from the blast out of the cannon just one cannonball was sure to put a dent in solid stone, such as what the Pillars were made out of.

He just hoped that his friends would listen to the order that Roan had given them over his communicator, and stay down. Billy didn't want to imagine how horrific and disgusting it would be if one, or all, of his friends down there on the harbor had gotten hit by one of these cannonballs.

Seeing Billy helping out, Roan smiled broadly. "Ah! That's the spirit Billy!" he shouted as he loaded one of the cannonballs into the cannons.

"Alright! Fire at will!!" He added, shouting over the roar of the crowd to be heard.

A cheer rose up from the crowd as the boom of the cannons started to go off, covering the air around the ship and up to the port with a thick cloud of smoke.

The smell of gunpowder managed to find it's way through the Blue Ranger Helmet and caught in Billy's throat, causing him to cough a slight bit. He wasn't sure how the other people on the ship could breathe in this smoke.

Maybe, he thought, after awhile of having to go into battle and having to inhale the smoke of the fired cannons, a person would get used to it.

Either that or everyone doing a really good job at pretending that the smoke wasn't choking them, when in truth it was choking them up about as bad as it was choking Billy.

It took several shots from the cannons, before the pillars fell.

As the last of the smoke from the cannons cleared, Billy could see the clouds of dust rising into the air, from where the last two pillars had fallen.

Silver noticed this as well, and seeing how the two pillars had fallen, she knew that it was her brigade's time to shine.

Raising her gun into the air, Silver let out a roar like a wolf, before aiming the weapon towards the harbor.

Apparently, Billy thought, this was the Signal that the others had been waiting for. They all let out similar howls before jumping overboard into the shallow waters below them, and swimming the rest of the way towards the harbor.

Billy followed, knowing that they would need all the extra help that they could get. Plus, he had to meet up with his friends again.

* * *

After the two Pillars had been knocked down, thing on the harbor had become rather chaotic.

Tommy, Jason, and Kimberly were now surrounded by monsters on al sides. After the monsters had sensed that the pillars had fallen, they had stepped up their attacks.

If he had to guess, Tommy figured, the reason for this increase in attacks would be to make up for the fact that these monsters could no longer be generated in large numbers, and thus if one got killed, that was it.

Personally, Tommy would like to blame Kimberly for this whole incident. After all it had been her fool idea to jump off the cliff and go into the sea of monsters ahead of them, and not think through a more stealth-approach plan, which practically forced both him and Jason to follow behind her to make sure she didn't get herself killed.

What had she been thinking?! Doing something crazy like that?!

But, he added on, he couldn't really blame Kimberly. This place was a trap in itself, and regardless of how they had entered the harbor, they would have probably activated the trap before they could even attempt to carry out their plans.

_Bang! _

The noise rang out through the air, multiple times, catching the monsters, and the three rangers entirely off guard.

At least three monsters in front of them, fell to the ground, and disintegrated.

Following this was a flash of blue, which circled around the group like a boomerang.

As the monsters fell the three Rangers looked to see who had taken out these monsters for them. Seeing the Blue Ranger before them, their hearts leapt with joy.

"You guys alright?" Billy asked as he looked at his friends.

Kimberly dusted off her Ranger suit and nodded. "We're fine." She stated as she walked towards the Blue Ranger. She found it amazing that he had even managed to live past the incident that had separated him from the team.

On top of that she was amazed that Billy had even managed to find them. It had taken them several hours just to find the place where their parents were being held, and to get through the city, and yet Billy seemed to have found them with no problem.

Well, Kimberly thought shaking her head and giving Billy a cheerful hug showing him that she was glad that he was still alive, It didn't matter how he was alive, or how he had found them, she was just glad that he was Alive and there.

"Billy, How on Earth did you survive, and Find us?" Tommy asked as he looked at his friend.

Billy found himself laughing at the question. As he noticed the questioned looks on their faces, he began to explain that he wasn't even sure how he had survived that earlier incident. He however, explained to them that after he had woken up on the 'mainland' he had run into Silver and Roan. (Which he introduced them to Silver, when she walked up to them.) and they had volunteered to help him find his them. He hadn't really any idea where they were at from there.

Except for the fact when he had described the place that he had last seen them, Silver and Roan seemed to recognize it. He wasn't even sure if they were going to the right place, until he had picked up the transmission on his communicator, in which Aisha and Adam had said that they had found all of the parents.

"What exactly have you guys been up to since I got separated?" Billy asked curiously as he looked at the three of his friends who stood before him.

Just as Tommy was about to speak and explain to Billy that they had spent the last few hours wandering around the town, trying to find where their parents were being held, and how they had split up from Adam and Aisha to cover more ground, when Silver stepped up to them, crossing her arms.

"Not that I mean to be rude, but I am under the impression that you are under a time-limit for this mission, am I right?" She stated.

The four rangers nodded, signaling to the Pirate that they were indeed under a time-limit for this mission.

"..Then, perhaps, this story can be told while we travel? It's going to take a few minutes to get to the island, and there is no telling how long it will take to actually get to the destination where you are heading to on the island....and I'm sure that last battle did waste a precious amount of your time."

Nodding in agreement, the Four Rangers followed Silver and the rest of the crew back to the ship, which had made it to the harbor, in order to travel over to the island.

"I should tell Aisha and Adam to start trying to get out of there. It'll make our job a little easier, and probably cut down on some time." Jason stated as he looked to the other three, who nodded in agreement that this might be a good idea.

Adam and Aisha were pretty good fighters and they knew that they could trust them to get the parents out to safety. Even though, with the two of them, having to protect a large group of people it would be difficult, if there was any Rangers that could handle such a task, it definitely had to be them.

"Black Frog, Yellow Bear, come in." Jason stated into his communicator.

* * *

"We read you Gold Hawk, What's up?" Aisha's voice asked from over the communicator.

"We're heading to your location now."

"...and?" Aisha asked, not sure what they were asking of her and Adam. After all, they could have figured out that they were on their way by looking at the MPVGs.

"It's going to be a difficult task to accomplish, but the two of you have to get those parents out of there. We'll meet up with you on the island, and escape from there."

"But...Ja---I mean Gold Hawk, there are monsters all around this place! You can't possibly be expecting the two of us to get 11 people out of here safely on our own do you?!"Aisha stated. It was obvious that she was starting to get a little panicked by the order seeing that she almost slipped and called Jason by his real name, right there in front of all the parents.

"I know, I know. But, I trust that you two can do it. If there is anyone who can do it, it's got to be you two. We're counting on you." Jason stated, ending the transmission.

Aisha bit her lip as she looked over at Adam, and then over to her parents. This would be easier if she just had to protect her own parents, and let the others protect their parents.

But there were 11 adults here for the two of them to get out of there safely. Aisha wasn't sure that it was going to work out.

With a sigh she drew out her weapons, and turned towards the parents.

"Alright, It's time for us to bust out of here." she stated trying to make herself sound a lot braver than she actually was. The truth was she was scared to death. Jason and the others had pretty much left the safety of all the parents in her and Adam's hands. Which if anything happened to them on the way out of here, her friends would never forgive the two of them.

"But we can't just leave here. That witch who was here earlier, she said our children were here....We can't just leave here without them!!" Mrs. Cranston protested to the two Rangers.

Aisha and Adam looked to each other. They both were trying to think of something to say in order to get Mrs. Cranston to cooperate.

"That witch is a liar, and I wouldn't trust a word she says if I were you." Adam found himself stating bluntly as he looked towards the parents. Actually, that was pretty much the truth as far as he was concerned. Beelzalea, (the witch that Mrs. Cranston spoke of,) was not to be trusted, no matter what she said or did.

With a nod, following up his sentence, he pulled out the Power-Ax, switching it over to cannon-blaster mode. If it was going to be just the two of them trying to get everyone out of there, then they were going to need some pretty heavy fire-power.

Mrs. Cranston nodded. If the Black Ranger was saying that her son was not here in this relm, then perhaps she should trust him.

"Alright everyone stand back..."

Aiming the cannon-ax at the door, the Black Ranger took a deep breath as he placed his energy into the weapon. After a few seconds he pulled the trigger on the cannon, releasing the black-violet energy blast at the wall, causing him to stumble backwards slightly from the force of the blast.

With a loud crack, the heavy wooden door burst into pieces. Splinters and dust flying into the air, and scattering all over the ground. The parents stared at the Black Ranger in amazement, wondering why he had not used this before to get them out of there sooner.

The blast had travelled far enough that the two monsters that had been guarding the door, were no longer there. In fact, as the two Ranger and the parents exited the cell, they could see the last bits of those monsters disintegrating into the air, like all the monsters that the Rangers fought did.

"Okay, this way. Stick close, stay low, and be quiet." Adam whispered as he looked around the empty stone hallway to see if the recent blast had caught any other monsters' attention.

Seeing that no monsters were coming, he signaled for the others to follow him. as they slowly made their way down the hallway. (Adam following the map on his MPVG, so that they could try to find a way out of the prison running into the least amount of monsters possible.)

Aisha followed behind all of them, keeping her eyes peeled for any monsters that might sneak up on them making an attempt for an ambush.

* * *

The Rangers had arrived at the Record store a few hours after they had left the Court-house/Library. This had mainly been to their unfamiliarity with the streets of Turtle Cove, that they had found themselves lost on several occasions on their way to the store.

However, eventually they had arrived. Just in time as well. As they approached the Record-store they saw a man outside the store closing it up for the night.

"Excuse me!" Kylie shouted as she rushed up to the man, leaving the other rangers several feet behind her to catch up.

The man turned to her, adjusting his glasses as he looked down at the Teenager that had just approached him.

"I'm Sorry, If your looking for some music, I afraid we're closed for the night."

Kylie shook her head. "No! No! I'm Here to find Mr. Kuriyo...Do you know where he is?"

The man pushed the long strands of black hair back behind his ear, as he told her that he was in fact the same Mr. Kuriyo that she was looking for. Although he wasn't sure why she was looking for him, as he was usually a law abiding, moral, citizen. Plus aside from running this record store, and running errands in the town, he was pretty much a recluse. Whatever this teenager had to talk to him about he figured it had to be pretty important, and therefore, he should hear her out.

Kylie then began to explain to him that she was looking for information about her ancestors, and the old Lady at the Court-house library had told them that he would be the best person to talk to about it.

Mr. Kuriyo nodded, as he looked at Kylie, and then to her friends, as he started to walk towards his car, talking with them the whole time.

"Well, I wouldn't claim to know everything about the Kuriyo Family History, and I'm no expert on genealogy. But, I can tell you what I know, at least of the family up until now." He stated as he looked down at Kylie. "But, after I'm finished...there is a question that I would like for you to answer."

As they stood at the car, Mr. Kuriyo began to explain everything that he knew. Starting with his Great-Great-Grandparents, who had moved to Turtle Cove from the Far-East, explaining how they used to run the Inn in the town. Although it had been torn down after fire had damaged a lot of the inside of the building. From there he continued down the Family line, explaining about each of his ancestors, until he came to the current time.

After he had finished explaining about the family all the way up to the current time, he stopped and looked at Kylie with a curious look, as he began to ask his question that he wanted to ask.

"Now that I've given the information that you are looking for. I hope you don't mind me asking; exactly who are you?"

Kylie smiled as she looked to the man, which after listening to what he had said she had come to learn that this man was her Uncle. "My name is Kylie...Kylie Lain." She stated, almost shyly. Knowing that this man would be pretty surprised to know her name.

"As I thought. You must be my sister Jin's daughter." Mr. Kuriyo stated with a nod, as he adjusted his glasses and studied Kylie's face.

"I remember that day that Jin had called me, saying that there had been an accident at her house out in the Angel Grove desert, and that she had lost her daughter. I hadn't seen anyone so disdain. I swear she hardly left her bed for weeks on end, with her depression." He added as he shook his head and looked down at the ground.

There was a thoughtful look in his eyes as he thought back on the whole incident. Remembering his sister's and her husband's hardship that they had to suffer through over the apparent loss of their daughter. He had never seen such distraught people.

"....Kouji, Jin's husband, kept blaming himself for the incident. He kept saying that it was his fault, his research over that damned medallion had led them out there. I remember it was me who had to force him to snap out of it, and realize that it wasn't his fault."

Trini looked over at the others as she listened to Mr. Kuriyo talk. There was a smile on her face as she heard this information. Although she could tell that Kylie had yet to catch onto what this story was meaning, she and the others knew right away.

According to this story, Kylie's parents were still alive somewhere and they were sure that Mr. Kuriyo knew where they were living.

"But....how exactly...are you alive? Jin and her husband were living out in the middle of the desert...and you were very young, too young to have fended for yourself."

Kylie nodded as she began to explain the whole thing. (Although, changing it to being that Ceres had been an actual person who had taken her in, rather than a rabbit, knowing that the truth of the story would be unbelievable, and make her sound almost crazy.)

After her story was over, Mr. Kuriyo nodded, as if he seemed to understand this story. It seemed to make sense, to him at least.

"Mr. Kuriyo. The truth about why we came here to find you is that we wanted to know if Kylie's parents were still alive and according to what you've said they are. Perhaps, if it's not too much to ask....maybe you could tell us where they are." Kat asked as kindly as she possibly could.

She didn't want to make herself sound over eager in finding the location of Kylie's parents. After all she wasn't too sure that Kylie's Uncle was very trusting of them anyhow. He might have seemed like he understood the story, but that could have all been a good act, to politely cover up the fact that he found them to be completely crazy.

However, before Mr. Kuriyo could begin to explain anything, a loud crash was heard nearby.

Turing the Rangers saw several Tengu, terrorizing the citizens of Turtle Cove.

"W-What are those creatures?" Mr. Kuriyo asked in shock as the Tengu started to approach them.

All of the Rangers in front of him fell into a defensive position.

The street had pretty much been evacuated of people who had run into hiding when the Tengu had started to appear.

"Tengu. Just our luck." Zack sighed as he looked around at the swarm of Tengu. Lucky for them the street was deserted, except for Mr. Kuriyo.

Turning towards Mr. Kuriyo, Kat spoke up. "You'd better get somewhere safe, and let us handle these birds."

Adjusting his glasses Mr. Kuriyo looked at the group of teens. "So, you've had experience with these monsters?" He asked.

Trini nodded as she looked towards Kylie's Uncle. "You could say, these creatures have bugged us quite a few times back home, so just go, and we'll take care of them."

Nodding, Mr. Kuriyo took off to a safe place to hide.

"Alright, Guys, the Coast is clear!" Tanya stated as she looked towards the others.

"Alright, Let's do it!" Zack announced.

"Ninja Ranger Power!"

"The Turtle!"

"The Owl!"

" The Tiger!"

"The Lion!"

"The Rabbit!"

As these words were spoken, and the rangers made the motions to summon their Ninja Power to their bodies, bright colorful lights corresponding to the five Rangers' colors appeared.

"Alright! This is so Awesome!!" Tanya stated energetically as she checked out the bronze-colored Ninja outfit, with the emblem of the Lion upon it.

Kylie looked down at the Ninja suit she was wearing. As she looked at the purple arm-bracers, she couldn't help but feel a slight bit sad.

This was part of the Power that Ceres had originally been.

She could almost feel Ceres' spirit coursing through her, with the Power of the Ninjetti, giving her strength.

_Kylie! This is your first official fight as a Ninjetti Ranger. Are you ready?_ She could almost hear Ceres' voice in her head.

Nodding, Kylie smirked behind her Ninja mask. "Let's get 'em."

With this all of the Rangers spread out, charging into battle.

Tanya engaged in battle with at least two Tengu.

She swung at one of them with a graceful punch. The Tengu caught her arm, while the other one clawed at her back with it's talons.

"We've got you now Ranger!!" The Tengu stated in a triumphant voice.

With a smirk Tanya looked over her shoulder at the Tengu that was clawing at her.

In an instant Tanya used her Ninja Power. As the Tengu punched at her again, She vanished, causing the Tengu to punch his comrade in the beak instead.

All that the Tengu had was the Bronze-Ranger's suit. Or at least a copy of the suit.

"Now what was it that you were saying?" Tanya asked curiously from where she was.

The Tengu dropped the cloth that they had in their hands, and began to look at each other and then to the Bronze-suited Ninja in confusion. How had she managed to slip from their grasp so easy?

With a laugh, Tanya kicked at the closest of the two Tengu, causing it to stumble backward into it's comrade, which caused the two of them to fall over.

"I love these Powers!" Tanya laughed happily as she, almost literally, skipped off to another battle with some other Tengu.

Zack fell out of nowhere, in his battle, and landed on top of one of the Tengu, knocking it to the ground.

Getting up and dusting himself off, he looked down at the fallen Tengu.

"You know, you should really keep your eyes on the sky. You never know who's gonna fall on you." He joked to the fallen bird.

In his joking, another Tengu tried to hit him.

Although his back was turned to the Purple-feathered birds, he could sense that one was about to attack him.

It was almost like a sixth sense that seemed to come with Ranger Power, heightened awareness of your surroundings, and your enemies attacks.

Just as the Tengu was about to hit him, he slide-Teleported backwards, behind the Tengu, and launched a quick Karate-chop on the Tengu, his arm landing right in the middle of the Tengu's back.

In their fight, Trini and Kat were surrounded. There were Tengu all around them and no way for them to slip by them.

"Ooh, this could get ugly." Trini stated as she looked around the group of enemies that were surrounding them.

"Yeah..I think we might be outnumbered here.." Kat replied, in a joking voice, showing that she knew that Trini was just teasing, and she was just playing along with the joke.

Trini gave a smile. "Not a problem..." She stated with a wink before running at the enemies directly in front of her.

Leaping into the air, she did a back flip over one of the Tengu. As she was right over his head, she activated her Ninja power.

In a bright flash of Orange, Trini summoned the 'clone' Ninja form of herself.

The Clone was flipping over the Tengu in an opposite direction. While Trini landed behind the Tengu, her "twin" landed in front of the Tengu.

At the same time, both of them, fell out of their back flips, landing a swooping kick to either side of the Tengu, knocking the wind out of him.

"See?" Both Orange-Clad Ninja's stated to Kat.

Kat let out a laugh, as she attacked one of the Tengu, with a graceful ballet-move/kick.

So far, throughout this battle a sense of light-heartedness seemed to be running through the Rangers. It wasn't like they weren't taking the battle seriously, it was just that the battle was so easy, and that it was the first time for many of them to be using their Ninja Powers, and so it was natural for them to be a little excited about it and have a little fun.

Kylie was fending off the Tengu pretty well, despite the fact that she had no formal martial arts training of any kind. She was mainly just resorting to wailing on the enemy, and using her Ninja Powers to dodge out of the way of oncoming attacks, and to catch her enemy off guard.

She had to admit, this whole Ranger stuff was kind of fun, especially with these Ninja Powers. She was kind of glad that she had received them, even though it had meant that her adoptive mother had to die in order for her to receive these awesome Powers.

Standing at the edge of the battle, Alone watched with his arms crossed. The Rangers had this battle handled on their own.

As he pushed a few stands of his spiky red hair out of the way of his eyes, although he really didn't know why he bothered, his hair was just going to fall right back in front of his eyes after he pushed it out of the way, he gave a small smirk.

"So these are the Grunts that Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd have sent? How Pathetic." He commented to himself as he watched the Rangers battling the Tengu.

He had figured that with Zedd and Rita's constant failure at beating the Rangers that they would have ditched the idea of Tengu Warriors as grunts, much like they had ditched the idea of Putty, (at least, they had stopped using Putty for awhile, until much recently), and they would have started to search the galaxy for creatures that they could use as their typical thugs to terrorize the Rangers, that were more powerful.

Alone was rather surprised that with the arrival of Queen Minerva, that she had not bothered to bring along some of her thugs to do battle against the Rangers. He had dealt with those creatures, and knew well enough that the Rangers would have had a little difficulty in such a battle, even with their Ninja Powers.

But, he thought as he tightened the Velcro-strap on his gloves, she couldn't just very well leave the territories that she had conquered un-protected while she was off on Vacation visiting with her daughter and her son in-law.

Minerva might have been egotistical, Self-centered, and was guilty of being very Vain, and cold hearted, but stupid was one thing she was not.

Alone shook his head. He knew that she shouldn't have been bothering himself thinking about Minerva's personality and why she hadn't brought any of her henchmen, and thugs with her to help terrorize the Rangers.

He really should be focused on the battle. If the rangers were to need any help he had to be paying attention so that he would know, and could come to their aid.

Right now it appeared that Kylie and Zack had their situations handled, as they had teamed up and were fending off the enemies together. Kylie making the attempts to mimic some of Zack's moves.

Trini and Kat had teamed up and were doing pretty well in their fight

The only one who seemed like she needed any help in the battle appeared to be Tanya. Although she had Martial arts skills, added to her Ninja Power, she was still surrounded by several Tengu, and was completely outnumbered.

With a slight smile, Alone leapt into battle, summoning a samurai-like sword from thin air. As he slide-teleported through the crowd of Tengu he slashed at them with the sword. Although the sword did not do much damage, other than cause a few sparks to come from the Tengu as the blade made contact with them.

"Thanks for the help." Tanya stated as she looked towards Alone, who had just appeared up beside her.

Nodding Alone, closed his eyes temporarily, causing the sword in his hands to disappear when he tapped the tip of the blade against the ground.. From this point on in the battle, he was going to rely on his hand to hand combat. That way the battle would be evenly matched.

The battle continued between the three groups as they took down the Tengu, fending them off until at last the Tengu finally retreated, like they usually did whenever the Rangers started to get the upper hand in the battle.

Looking to see if the street was still clear, the Rangers came out of their Ninja forms.

"That was fun!" Tanya stated cheerfully as she clasped her hands together. Even though, she felt kind of ashamed to admit that she had found fighting to be such a thrill; but she knew that it wasn't really so much as the fighting that she found thrilling, but it was the fact of having power in which to fight with.

Kylie nodded in agreement. She had very much enjoyed the thrill of actually using her Ninja Powers for the first time. Although, to her the last battle felt a lot like the several times that she had gone out hunting, and had encountered some seriously tough animals.

* * *

"....Well, my questions have been answered..."

Turning the Rangers, frowned. Mr. Kuriyo was walking towards them, with a shocked look on his face. They wondered how much of the battle he had seen, had he seen them transform into their Ninja outfits? Had he caught the end of the battle where they had powered down?

Either way, they were sure that he knew their secret. Although, they were sure that it did not mean trouble. From the looks of things, they still had their Ranger Powers.

Meaning that Mr. Kuriyo was a trustworthy person, who would not tell anyone of the Ranger's true Identities.

"All of you are Power Rangers. That's why those monsters were here. Usually we don't have Monster attacks here in Turtle Cove...usually we just hear about the Monster attacks in Angel Grove.."

Alone nodded and crossed his arms as he looked toward the sky breifly.

"Just give it a few years. Things will change, and this city will start seeing monster attacks almost as frequently as Angel Grove." he stated with a frown.

All eyes turned towards Alone as he spoke. It seemed as if Alone knew something that they didn't.

Was he aware of the enemy's plans, and knew that involved taking over not only Angel Grove, but Turtle Cove as well?

"If the battle that we are in, continues to progress out of our control, Our enemy may set their eyes upon Turtle Cove as well." Alone stated, trying not to make it sound like he was completely lying, and had just let information of the future slip.

Alone frowned. It was destined to happen; Turtle Cove was going to become the next Angel Grove. Regardless of whether or not the current Rangers succeed at protecting Angel Grove from the forces of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, and whatever enemy may later come along, Turtle Cove was soon to become a Monster's paradise.

Although, Turtle Cove's destiny to become a monster hot-spot was not to be for several more years, and at least three or four different cities would become Monster Hot-spots before then.

"But, why would Rita, Zedd, Beelzalea, Minerva, and Ivan, want to take Turtle Cove? No offense, but there really isn't anything here.." Zack stated as he looked around the area.

Alone crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Well, there is a legend of the Animarium......you don't suppose...?" Trini began, as she thought about it for a few seconds.

She had heard the legend of the Floating Island of the Animarium, a long time ago. One of her friends back in elementary school had been from this town, and they had told the legend of the Animarium as a part of a class project.

"Impossible. The Animarium, it's just a fairytale.."

Alone pushed a lock of red hair behind his ears, watching it slip from behind his ear and fall right back into place in front of his face.

"Fairytale or not it doesn't matter at the current time. Enough has been said on this subject already, and the whole thing is no concern of ours." He stated sternly as he crossed his arms.

Turtle Cove's future was not a concern of the current Power Rangers, Alone thought. Right now the only ones who should be concerned about Turtle Cove's future when the time came, were nothing more than innocent civilians, added into that there was a good possibility that the future chosen Rangers were still very young children. It would be a while before Turtle Cove would fall victim to daily monster attacks, and for now, the knowledge of the future was best discussed at a minimum.

Too much information given, and there was no telling what impact it would have on the current time, and not to mention the future. If the knowledge of the future somehow reached the ears of the future Power Rangers, and they were to be made aware of their destinies at the current time, it could very possibly change the course of the future.

....If the course of the destiny of one Power Ranger Group is changed, it could very well change everything else in the future.

Changing the course of destiny for one Ranger team, would be just what would be needed to help fuel future chaos in its conquest to consume the universes. There would be no limit to the consequences of the changed destiny.

It was bad enough that he had let this information slip in the first place, and he would definitely be punished for it, among other things.

As long as he didn't allow himself to become too comfortable around the Rangers, as to allow himself to continue this bad habit of speaking openly and honestly with the Rangers, and continue to focus on his mission, he might be able to avoid punishment for his past actions.

The other Rangers shrugged and looked down. It was annoying in a slight bit that Alone had just begun to speak of something, and suddenly he just decided that they didn't need to know about anything else regarding Turtle Cove. If Alone knew something about their future, like if they failed at protecting Angel Grove or something, then he needed to tell them.

He needed to tell them everything about where they would have screwed up in the future, so that they could correct it, and hopefully change the future for the better for the whole world.

"Did we upset him?" Mr. Kuriyo asked as he looked over at Zack with a curious look.

Zack shook his head. "I dunno. We actually just met him not too long ago, even we're still trying to figure him out." he stated as the group watched Alone walk away, back towards the car.

With a nod, Mr. Kuriyo turned towards his niece. He decided that now would be the time to change the subject, and continue to talk about what they had been talking about before the Tengu monsters had shown up.

"Kylie, As I was about to say before these monsters attacked....Your Mother and Father; Jin and Kouji, they are still alive. Until just recently they were living with mother, your grandmother that its, in Stone Canyon. Actually, I think right now, they're in the process of moving out."

"Where are they moving to? Do you know? Do you know where they live?" Kylie asked curiously in an excited voice as she heard this information. She wanted eagerly to find out where her parents were. She just wanted to meet them! Just to tell them that she was still alive, and that she was happy that they were alive. She could hardly wait to feel like she had a family again. After Ceres had died, she had felt like she had lost all the family she had, since Ceres was the only family that she had known, and she barely knew the other Rangers enough to feel like they were a family to her.

Mr. Kuriyo gave a brief laugh as he looked down at his niece. She was so anxious to find about her parents that she was acting like a kid who had just consumed a little too much sugar earlier that day. That was definitely a family inherited trait, as he remembered that his sister, Jin, was much like that when she found something that interested her greatly and she was super curious about.

"They're in Angel Grove. I believe their house is on Garden Walk Drive." He stated with a smile as he looked down at his niece.

Trini looked thoughtful for a moment. "Garden Walk Drive? That's only a couple of blocks away from Tommy, and Zack." She stated after a few minutes.

Kylie smiled. Well, at least she knew that her parents would be living close to a couple of her fellow Rangers. That way it wouldn't be too far out of their way to help her get home. On top of that, if she ever needed any of her fellow Rangers to talk to, she could go and find them easily.

"Well! What are we waiting for?" she asked in an excited voice, trying to keep herself from bouncing around in joy and excitement.

Mr. Kuriyo put his hand on his niece's shoulder and looked down at her with warm eyes, as he brushed a strand of his long dark hair that had fallen out of the pony-tail that it was pulled back in, behind his ear.

"Well, first why don't we call your mother and father? I highly doubt that they would appreciate a stranger showing up at their door, claiming to be their daughter. I do understand that you want it to be a surprise though, so....here's what I'll do, I'll call Jin and Kouji and tell them I'm coming up there tonight....on a spontaneous visit...since it's been awhile since I've seen Jin, and I haven't actually seen their new place, and we both go up there."

Kylie nodded, agreeing that this would be a good idea.

"..and we'll go up there with you. Actually I'm kinda of curious to see how this is all gonna go down. Plus, you're going to need somebody there for moral support. " Zack stated as he crossed his arms and looked around at the group.

All of them nodded in agreement that they would go with Mr. Kuriyo and Kylie to see Kylie's parents, so that they could provide Kylie with help and support if things were starting to get a little awkward between her parents and herself.

* * *

The Command Center Infirmary was quiet. Beelzalea thought as she looked around, soon after teleporting into the room. As she heard the doors slide shut, Beelzalea smirked. She had just arrived seconds after Alpha had walked out of the room leaving from checking up on the Red Ranger.

She waved her hand in the air, causing a small streak of sliver to appear in the air temporarily.

For now, the alarms in the Command Center wouldn't be going off, and Zordon should be none the wiser that an enemy stood inside, what was believed by many rangers to be a safe-haven from evil.

Crossing her arms she frowned. It had been all too easy for her to enter this place. However the Rangers could believe that this was a safe-haven from evil. She didn't understand.

If she had wanted to, she could just blow this place to smithereens and destroy Zordon, the Zords, and everything in the command center, right there if she wanted.

But why bother? It wouldn't do much good. If she was going to completely take everything the Rangers had, aside from their power, she wanted to take their lives along with this place. Blow the place up now and what will you have accomplished? she thought looking around the room.

Absolutely nothing! That's what. You will have destroyed a building, Zords, a robot, one of the most powerful beings in the Galaxy--whom was trapped in a time-warp---and a comatose Red Ranger. That was hardly an accomplishment compared to taking all those things plus the lives of 11 other living beings.

She examined one of the computers nearby her that was monitoring the Red Ranger's life-recovery progress.

Shaking her head she turned and looked toward where the Red Ranger was laying.

"Oh, Hello Rocky...I see that there hasn't been much improvement since yesterday...." She stated as she approached the chair at his bedside.

Sitting down in it she sighed and looked at him with a slight smile. "But, there hasn't been much of a decline in your condition since yesterday either...your friends would take that as a good sign."

Shaking her head, she looked around the room.

"Create a spirit-monster to possess the Red-Ranger, and let it kill the other Rangers! My Mistress Rita orders and I follow. I create the Sleep-walker with Finster's help; I send it down to possess you. I give him orders to spy on you Rangers..not to kill. That would have kept your life-force separate from Sleep-Walker's at least a little bit."

"...But, Of course, Zedd decides that his plan is better and his authority is greater than mine...and so what he orders the monsters to do, is what they do. So, I'm sure you understand. _this_ isn't exactly what I had been expecting to happen."

Beelzalea sighed and looked over at the Red Ranger. Like her explanation could even be heard.

"Oh, why am I even making this explanation to you?" She stated getting to her feet and pacing around the room.

Looking over her shoulder towards the door of the room, she gave a slight chuckle.

"Zedd does often prefer quick yet painful deaths of those whom he kills...." She stated off-handedly.

The shadows that the lights of the room threw over her face seemed to grow darker and more sinister as an evil smirk came across her lips.

"Of course, that's what makes me different from Zedd. I prefer torture. Of course, not necessarily of the physical kind."

Beelzalea chuckled slightly as she walked towards one of the computers.

"You see, I believe a creature of any strength can withstand any sort of physical torture as long as they have a strong mental strength. You don't have to destroy the physical body in order to kill someone."

Putting her fingers on the side of the monitor, she shook her head with a dark smile upon her lips.

Turning towards Rocky, she frowned.

"I didn't get the chance for the mental torture to last as long as I was planning for it to. Zedd saw to that. Of course, to resume mental torture now in your current state...would be much too pointless."

As she paced the room, in slow graceful steps, she summoned a knife to her hand. She carefully examined the jagged blade in her hand as if she were admiring this weapon for its deadly beauty. Shaking her head she pursed her lips.

After a few seconds of pacing the room she turned towards Rocky.

"Your mind is already vulnerable enough to be consumed by Chaos, which was basically the purpose of mental torture."

Beelzalea paused as she looked towards one of the computers nearby, before looking down at the knife in her hands. The shadows on her face growing darker, as she looked at the reflection upon the sliver blade.

"You know, by now in my Mistress's attempts to conquer a planet, I would have killed at least one of my enemies, offering its power to her to make her stronger."

Beelzalea smiled as she looked down at the blade in her hand. Usually she would offer up the life-force and power of one of her enemies, and that would be enough to satisfy her Mistress's thirst for power temporarily. But, sometimes it just wasn't enough. What her Mistress really needed would be a Power unlike all of the other powers and life-forces she had received before; a power that she could only find in exceptional beings, namely, Power Rangers.

Turning towards Rocky once more, she started to approach him.

"Your mind and your Ranger Power is trapped in your body currently preventing the chaos from fully consuming your spirit and absorbing it's power.....and that is why I'm afraid you'll have to die."

Yes, that is what would have to be done, she thought as she looked at the knife in her hand. It would be more than easy.

The Red Ranger was laying there defenseless, there was no Ranger armor upon his body to deflect the silver blade, and he was not even in a conscious state for instinct to kick in and come to his own defense.

All she had to do, was approach the Red Ranger, and draw the blade, and strike. Once this was done, the Ranger Power that was inside of him would lose its connection to his soul. With this connection severed, she could take the Red Ranger's power, mind, and soul and offer it up to her Mistress.

Her Mistress would be most pleased with this.

Slowly she approached the Red Ranger, drawing the blade above her head, placing some of her power into the blade, causing it to glow violently, casting light around the room.

Soon, she was standing at the Red Ranger's beside once more. The shadows on her face had become dark, that it appeared that she had no face. It looked as if a mask of shadows had appeared, obscuring her face entirely. Her eyes were glowing brightly amidst these shadows the pupils of which were a solid glowing vibrant red, indicating that her focus was upon the Red Ranger laying before her.

Her breathing was deep and slow, almost like the growl of a wild animal.

With a roar she swung the blade in a downward motion. As it sliced through the air, Beelzalea could see the whole thing going in slow motion. She began to feel excited as she anticipated seeing the blade cut into the Red Ranger's flesh. All the blood, it was a sight she would love to see!

* * *

As the blade drew close to him, Rocky's eyes came open, and he sat up quickly. An aura of Red surrounded his body. One would believe that he had returned to consciousness, if it weren't for the fact that his eyes were completely unfocused.

He began screaming, at the top of his lungs. Just one long continuous scream, that echoed off the walls of the Command Center Infirmary. If it had not been for the spell that Beelzalea had cast earlier that had muted out her presence in the Command Center, and shut down all monitors of activity going on in this section of the Command Center, this scream would have alerted someone.

At the initial sound, Beelzalea leapt backward, nearly dropping the blade to the ground, as she attempted to cover her ears.

Drawing the blade once more, she frowned trying to ignore the Red Ranger's screaming.

"Your screams aren't going to save you, Red. I'm afraid Old Man Zordon can't hear you right now.." She growled as she leapt towards Rocky with the blade drawn once more ready to strike.

With a clatter, the blade suddenly fell to the floor as she attempted to stab the Red Ranger.

Something had knocked the blade out of her hand and sent it spinning across the floor. Looking up she glared.

"Impossible!" She exclaimed darkly as she saw the ghostly image of the Red-suited Ninja standing before her in a fighting stance.

Falling into a fighting stance herself, Beelzalea smirked. It appeared that she had underestimated the Guardian Spirit of the Ape. She had thought that the Guardian spirit of the Ape, along with the Red Ranger Power that was tied with it, were trapped in Rocky's body, because he was in a coma, and therefore there was no way for them to be summoned. However, there the Ninjetti Spirit of the Ape stood, assuming the Ninja form of the human whom he protected, and gave power to.

Getting the Power would be much more complicated now. Something that Beelzalea was glad about. She wanted a challenge. After all attaining a power to give to her Mistress by force would be much more rewarding than striking down a defenseless human to obtain the power.

For several minutes they just stared at one another, neither one willing to take the first move to begin the battle, to try to bring down the other one.

At last, Beelzalea, fed up with the hesitations, decided to take the first move. She sent a blast of rainbow colored energy at the Ape-Spirit.

The blast was blocked by a force field of red energy. As soon as the blast made contact with the shield it burst into pieces, bouncing off the shield and hitting some of the computers nearby.

In retaliation of this attack, the Ape-Spirit shot a blast of fire at Beelzalea. She dodged out of the way gracefully, causing the blast to hit the wall behind her, demolishing part of it. With a growl she leapt towards the ghostly Red Ranger.

Unfortunately, she had forgotten that the Red Ranger that she fought was nothing more than a ghost. Instead of hitting him and knocking him to the ground like she had planned, she passed right through him; falling flat on her face, at the same time knocking over some of the equipment that lay at the Red Ranger's bedside.

As she tried to get to her feet once more, her hand knocked over some more objects that had been laying on the table at the Red Ranger's bedside. She almost found it unfair that this guy could actually make contact with her, but she couldn't make contact with him.

Slowly she got to her feet, brushing some of the pure-white hair from her shadowed face. She dodged out of the way of another blast of fire. This one hitting Rocky, but since his body was surrounded by a red aura, he was protected behind it's power, and the blast just merely was absorbed by the aura.

Looking down at her hand, Beelzalea smirked. How could she have forgotten? The Ape Spirit, was one of the two Fire-based spirits of the Ninjetti Power.

In a sweeping motion she summoned a blast of Aqua-colored energy to her hand. Launching it like a grenade at the Red-Clad Ninja she let out a psychotic laugh. Her laughing continued as she watched the Ape-Spirit recoil in pain as he was hit with the water-element blast.

"What's the Matter Red? Can't handle a little water?!" Beelzalea laughed, as she summoned another orb of water to her hand, tossing it up into the air like a baseball, before throwing it at him.

This time the blast was intercepted by a blast of fire. The collision of these two opposing elements negated each other, and left nothing but a temporary puff of steam in the spot where they had collided.

Beelzalea growled, seeing that her attack had failed.

"You may know my weakness, but I'm not going to be so easily defeated, you feind." the Ape-Spirit growled, as he dashed towards Beelzalea,

Quickly she dodged out of the way of his attack, sending an orb of water flying at him.

The orb missed, hitting one of the computers nearby, causing it to start to short out, like most electronic devices would do when damaged by water.

"Oh will you shut up?!!!" Beelzalea shouted as she looked over towards Rocky.

He had been screaming in a panic this whole entire time, the computer that had been monitoring his heart-rate, was now beeping madly, keeping time with the Red Ranger's increased heart-rate.

The noise was starting to become grating to Beelzalea's ears, and it was beginning to wear on her nerves more so than the Ape-spirit's persistence in battle.

With a growl, she shot a blast of energy towards Rocky, although she knew it would bounce off of him.

The energy blast missed anyhow, and crashed into the beeping computer nearby him. At once the monitor started sparking, before it's annoying beep finally came to a halt.

"Finally! Wretched machines. Personally I don't see how Humans can stand technology! Always making more noise than it should..." Beelzalea stated under her breath as she back towards the Red-Clad Warrior who stood near her.

He did not respond to her statement. It was a pointless statement, meant to lower his guard, so that she could attack him. She had no real intention of him replying to this comment, nor did she have any intention of taking a break from the fight in order to discuss such a topic.

Knowing this, the Red-Clad ninja ran at her. Although she dodged quickly, yet clumsily.

Her awkward dodge, while successful in avoiding the Ninja's attack, cause her to fall backwards, knocking over more equipment, while throwing a blast of water at the ninja.

"This is so very pointless. I cannot possibly expect to defeat you while you are a mere spirit. No, for now I will make a retreat. But do not think that I will not be returning for your Power at a later time. After all, you may be a skilled fighter in your spirit form. But, the human whom you protect is merely a child, and has much to learn about fighting, and this battle that he has joined." Beelzalea stated as she vanished.

As she vanished, so did the Ninjetti-Ape Spirit, seeing that the threat of attack was over.

* * *

However, Rocky continued screaming, although the aura of red Energy had dispersed and vanished. His heart-rate was still increasing at an alarming rate, and he was starting to break out into a sweat.

He began trying to rip the wires off of him that were connecting him to the various machines, although, with how he fumbled with finding the wires, he was doing so in a blinded rage, not even quiet sure what he was doing, it was a if he was seeing something else going on before his eyes.

At this, Alpha suddenly came running into the room. The alarms had finally gone off, alerting them that the Red Ranger was in an unstable condition. Zordon had ordered him to go down to the infirmary immediately, in order to see what the issue was.

When he had arrived in the infirmary, the robot had been shocked to see it was completely trashed.

What had happened here?! Surely Rocky hadn't done this all on his own, seeing that he was currently still trying to get the wires off of himself.

"Aiyaiyayai!" Alpha shouted as he rushed as quickly as he could over to Rocky.

He tried to keep the Red Ranger from ripping the wires off of himself, and at the same time, try to figure out how to calm the Red Ranger down before he suffered from major heart failure.

Every time that Alpha tried to attach one of the wires back to Rocky, he would immediately try to rip it off him, still screaming.

Finally in the end, Alpha decided it would be best to restrain the teenager before he ended up pulling the plug on himself, and in a way unknowingly committing suicide. With a press of a few buttons on the computer key-boards that were still intact, metal bindings clamped themselves around Rocky's wrists, forcing them to lay at his sides, the palms of his hands were pressed against the bed.

Although the bindings on his arms did not keep him from struggling. He continued to make attempts to wrench his hands out of the bindings. If anything, the bindings were causing him to struggle more.

According to the Energy readings that Alpha had picked up as he scanned the Red Ranger to identify what the problem may be, Rocky's body temperature had increased at an alarming rate, and his heart was beating at an abnormal rate.

He was putting off an irregular amount of energy as well. The readings were almost off the charts.

From the way that his eye were unfocused, that despite the fact that he had managed to pick up some brain-activity from the Red Ranger, he had not returned to a conscious state, meaning that this whole thing had to be Rocky's physical body's response to something that was happening to him on the mental level.

Although, with all the technology that they had that was monitoring the Red Ranger, there was no way to tell for sure what was happening to him in his mind.

It took a few minutes for the Red Ranger to finally stop screaming, and return to the state that he had been in before the whole incident had occurred. As he fell back down to the bed, his eyes closed once more, and his mouth partially opened, his lips mouthing some incoherent words, as if he were merely just falling back to sleep after a bad dream, reminding himself that it had been nothing but a dream.

As the Red Ranger lay down, leather straps appeared around his chest. Alpha decided that this was necessary, It would do much better for Rocky's physical self not to be allowed to move if something like this were to happen again. If he were to sit up again, if this incident were to happen again, they could risk him struggling to free himself, and end up injuring himself, in the process.

For now, the Red Ranger had returned to peacefully to an unconscious state. Although, Alpha knew that further investigation upon what had just happened was definitely needed.

Why hadn't the alarms sounded when whoever had trashed the Infirmary had entered the place? Who had trashed it to begin with? Why?

Why didn't the alarms go off as soon as Rocky had fallen into distress?

Alpha, although he was a robot and knew the answer to many things, could not come up with any sort of logical explanation for such an event. A lot more investigation was going to be needed before he could ever find out what was happening here.

For now, he knew that he would have to keep a close eye on Rocky, to make sure that nothing like this would happen again, and while he was at it try to figure out what was going on with the Red Ranger.

He knew that he should contact the other Rangers who were still on Earth, and tell them about this incident. But, he decided against it. He was sure that the five of them were having a lot of fun today, and he didn't want to ruin that for them

After all, today was a vacation of sorts of them. Although they had technically just started. (or in most cases, restarted) their ranger service again and had not actually gotten to do much in the way of ranger missions) The Rangers still deserved what little time off that they could get.

Alpha knew that in the light of the recent events, it would be a long while before the Rangers would ever get to be just your typical teenagers, and it was best to let them enjoy this time while they could. After all, who knows when the next time they would get to enjoy a fairly peaceful day again?

He would give all explanation to the Rangers later, when they came by the Command Center.

For now, Alpha wanted just to respect the teenagers' freedom, and let them be what they were supposed to be, before the destiny of being protectors of the world was thrust upon them; normal human beings.

Alpha shook his head as he walked around the room, surveying the damage that had been done, as well as try to get an accurate reading on what was going on with the Red Ranger.

Although, he knew that even if they found out what was going on with Rocky, they couldn't do anything about it. Whatever was ailing him, Alpha knew, he was alone at fighting it.

All that he, or any of the other Rangers could do was stay by his side, no matter what happened. Even if this whole situation did not end well for the Red Ranger. (Although he hoped that wouldn't be the case.)

With this, the Rangers would also have to have keep up a constant hope that Rocky would pull through all of this on his own, and soon.

If any of the past events that had happened in all the years that he had known the Rangers had taught him anything, it was that if the Rangers kept up hope that they were fighting a winning battle, luck would turn in their favor, (usually) they would all be able to overcome the obstacles that they were facing.

With the recent turn of events, Alpha knew that the Rangers were starting to get the feeling that maybe their luck was running out.

From the looks on their faces every time that they teleported into the Command Center to receive their new orders from Zordon, and set off on a new mission, they were starting to lose hope.

A long time ago, when it was just the Rangers facing off against, Rita and Zedd's monsters, The Rangers never had any problem, they knew that they could overcome whatever plan that the two had decided to use to take down the Rangers.

But, ever since Beelzalea and Minerva had arrived, the Rangers; Alpha could tell, the Rangers seemed to have becomed a little overwhelmed by their tactics.

Alpha knew that the Rangers had little faith to spare for their fellow Red Ranger at the current moment. With the current situations, they just couldn't see luck turning in their favor anytime in their future.

Looking towards the door of the Infirmary, Alpha shook his head. He wasn't expecting any of the Rangers to come through that door...but part of him kind of hoped that the Six rangers who were wondering around the Forgotten Dimension would come in through that door, all cheery-faced (for a minute, until they saw the room in a total mess...) about a successful mission.

He hoped, that there was still enough luck left on their side, and hope left in their hearts that this was still a winning fight.

He hoped that at least for this mission, what little luck the Rangers had left, would be enough to bring them home safely.

After all, they only had a hour or two left to complete their mission and return.

Once that time was up, if the Rangers did not return, it would definitely be the end of things.

Alpha just knew it.

With several hours having passed, and all six shark-cycles having returned to the Command center, but no Rangers, Alpha was starting to wonder if something bad had happened. There had been no contact made between the Rangers and the command Center in the last few hours, and Alpha was starting to wonder how much longer his hope that the Rangers were okay, and doing good on their mission was going to last.

For now, he had faith that the Rangers would be successful.

In just two hours time, all of them would be standing there in that room. Their hopefulness starting to return to them. Allowing them to believe that maybe they hadn't exactly met their match of power in Beelzalea and Minerva teamed up with Rita and Zedd.

At least, that's the optimism that Alpha was sticking with for now.

* * *


	12. The Forgotten Deminsion Part III

Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers

**Author's note:** Once again, I apologize for the long delay in between chapters. It's the same reason that the last chapter was so long in being posted up that this one was delayed. I've had writer's block, and school. This chapter isn't really that great in my opinion, especially with some scenes in there, right towards the end.

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* * *

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**Chapter 12: The Forgotten Dimension- Part III**

Sunlight streamed down through the trees that surrounded the clearing.

A veil of pale green light hung over the clearing, making the area seem as if it were in an eternal Spring-time.

A young woman stood in the middle of this clearing, looking at all the small plants that were starting to bloom around her.

She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder as she looked at a nearby flower-bud.

"_This is what you wanted to show me_?" She asked as she turned to the man who stood behind her.

The man nodded, as he ran his fingers through his short brown hair.

She didn't understand why this place was so special that she had been dragged from the base to see. All it was a clearing in the middle of the forest.

After waiting several more seconds, expecting for something to happen in order to give them reason for being out there in the middle of the forest, however after several seconds nothing happened, and the area remained the same.

"_You know, you still haven't answered my question. Why are we here? What is it about this place that this place is so special to you, but I find nothing extraordinary about it? All that is here is plants..." _she asked turning to the man behind her, her impatience with his silence beginning to grow.

The man laughed slightly at the girl's irritation.

"_You don't understand do you?" _The man stated as he walked to the center of the clearing and motioned with his hands around the area.

"_This is it. This is exactly why we're here._"

With a brief flash, the entire scene changed. The woman was now sitting on the ground looking over at the man who sat by her side. His arm around her waist as they sat in a brief silence enjoying the peace. He appeared to be laughing, but no audible sound could be heard.

With another flash, the scene changed once more, the couple remained where they had been, but now the man wore a serious look upon his face.

"_Sometimes I wonder if this battle is even worth it. Every time we go out to the battle field, every friend and family member that gets killed, every enemy we kill, and every innocent life that is taken in the war, you and I both know what it means. It means the chaos has become stronger, every soul that it absorbs, every power that it collects; it makes our enemy stronger....and in turn stirs changes and irregularities in our minds." _

_"Because of this, we're starting to lose focus of what we originally sought out. We lost sight of our goal; and we're all starting to lose sight of who we really are, and who we were. Is that what you are talking about? The chaos of battle starting to influence our minds." _The girl stated.

The man looked ahead, not nodding or even giving the slightest signal that the girl had guessed what he was speaking of correctly.

_"But why is this place special?"_

The scene immediately changed once more, the whole area had changed. Smoke filled the clearing, hanging in the air like a thick blanket, almost as if it were trying to conceal the horrid scene from view.

The orange-red glow of fire could be seen shining through the black smoke.

The girl, another man, and the man from before were standing back-to back with their weapons drawn. They were surrounded by several monsters, completely outnumbered.

Another flash occurred and the fires were out, but the beauty and serenity was no longer there. Instead, the charred remains of trees and grass littered the area. The area's peaceful greenish tint had now been replaced with a cold and harsh gray light, from the overcast sky.

* * *

Beelazalea's eyes opened slowly. She was back in her room in the servant's quarters of the castle. A sigh escaped her lips as she looked at the dark, cold stone wall near her bed.

As she sat up slowly, she looked around her surroundings. Her head hurt terribly, she was sore, and felt drained of her energy.

How had she gotten here? The last thing that she remembered was having snuck into the Ranger's Command Center, to visit the Red Ranger, to see about his condition.

Trying to recall this, she was only brought back to brief, blurry flashes of the whole fight between her and the Ape-Ninjetti Spirit, and her attempt at trying to kill Rocky.

She remembered it, however vaguely.

It had all felt very dream-like to her, like she had been there only not entirely. With the feeling that she had, it was hard to be certain whether or not the events that she was recalling were real or not.

As she sat up, she felt a slight twinge of pain hit her. Looking at her arm, she gasped. There was a bruise upon her forearm, from where she had fallen and knocked over some of the equipment at the Red Ranger's bedside.

So, it hadn't been a dream. She thought as she looked down at the bruise upon her arm.

She had actually attacked the Red Ranger.

Looking into the shadows of the dimly lit room, she frowned, as if there was someone standing there in the darkness.

"I should have known..." She stated.

Getting to her feet she approached the door, as she reached the door she gave one last glace back to the shadows of the room.

* * *

Adam stumbled forward nearly falling down, as he blasted through another set of oncoming enemies.

They had run into a slight problem with their escape route, even on the MPVG, there wasn't exactly a clear route for them to travel.

As they had figured, this place was a maze, and having started out in the middle of it, they were getting lost easily.

On top of that it seemed like every time they turned around, a new enemy was popping up. It almost seemed as if these guys were just teleporting here at random, as if they had some sort of sense telling them exactly where the escaping rangers were at.

He and Aisha had a difficult time trying to make sure none of the Ranger's parents ended up injured.

The monsters were showing up at least three or more at a time, so it was difficult to make sure that none of the monsters got past the two of them.

Being lost in this maze, and battling monsters, all while trying to keep their parents safe, was starting to take their toll on them.

Everyone's nerves were starting to wear thin, especially Adam and Aisha's.

The both of them knew that they had to get out of this whole dimension soon. They were sure that they didn't have much time left as that it had already been well over five hours since they had started on this mission.

If they didn't get out soon, they both knew that they would lose their parents forever, or at least be killed by them.

It really didn't help that everyone was counting on the two of them to get everyone out of there in time. This whole mission, had started out in the hands of six rangers, and now with half an hour left, it had fallen onto the shoulders of just two.

Adam felt that if he hadn't been too concerned and focused on this mission, he probably would have snapped by this point with the frustration of the mission building up on him.

In their escape, which had led them to this maze of hallways, he actually had to keep himself from shouting at his own father whenever he had asked if they had known where they were going.

Luckily he had been able to keep his frustration to a minimum.

"There's got to be some sort of signal interference in this area." Aisha stated as she looked down at the MPVG screen. It had suddenly started picking up nothing but static, much to their annoyance.

Adam frowned from beneath his helmet as he shouldered the power Ax temporarily. That had to have been Ivan and Beelzalea's doing.

Those two, Beelzalea and Ivan, with what they were putting the Rangers through in the short time that they had teamed up, Adam could swear that those two were a match made for each other.

Ivan was a manipulative, malevolent, annoyance. (Adam couldn't call Ivan a pain, in the fact that aside from having been the first to destroy the Command Center, destroy their power, forcing them to go in search of a temporary power, Ivan had actually been one of their most easily defeated opponents.)

And Beelzalea? Well, she too was manipulative, and a pain in the butt, and they hadn't even had to face her in battle at all. Adam could make this judgment from her schemes.

Heaving a sigh as he finished taking down two monsters, he looked around at the hallway.

Adam couldn't help but draw the comparisons to the stereotypical science experiment often done by high School students on television shows; the whole experiment training a mouse to run through a maze.

In the experiment, the mouse would direct itself through the maze to get to the food that had been placed at the end of the maze.

However, in the case of the mouse, it had a sense of smell to direct it to the food. On top of that, the mouse was really directing itself through a small maze.

They were trying to direct more than just themselves to the exit.

The mouse didn't have to put up with monsters on the way to the other end of the maze, they did.

Actually, Adam thought, the comparison of this situation being like the experiment with the mouse was a bad comparison. This situation was hardly anything like that.

The situation was more like a blind-folded Chicken carrying a ticking time-bomb, being chased through a maze by several angry butchers, all intent on killing it, with the bomb slowly counting down to zero before exploding, and beating the butchers to the goal, and the only thing to help the chicken get out of danger is to get out of the maze.

Adam shook his head as that analogy came to mind. That was the craziest analogy that he had ever come up with.....a blind-folded chicken with a time-bomb? Exactly how many cartoons had he been watching lately?

That almost sounded like a analogy that Rocky would have come up with, to try to reduce the stress and tension of the situation by making them all laugh as that awkward image came through their minds.

The whole thought made Adam smile a bit, and feel considerably less stressed, as if Rocky had actually just made the weird comparison.

But this relaxation was only temporary. It only took a few seconds for the stress, tension and irritation of the mission to come falling onto that relaxed feeling, crushing it and causing Adam to crash back into the current situation.

"Any idea on which way we should be going?" Aisha asked as she looked around the corner of the hallway, to see if the coast was clear.

Shaking his head, Adam looked over his shoulder towards his parents. He was sure that they hadn't been brought to this place going through the hallways; if they had been they probably would have already made a suggestion on how to get out of here.

The two of them usually could give directions to others on how to get to a place that they had been before.

"Either way we turn, we're gonna end up in another battle, even if the hallway is clear." Adam stated as he looked down the other hallway.

Mr. Oliver clenched his fist as he looked at the two Rangers. He felt kind of bad for the two of them.

They were the only ones who could help them out of there, and help them get back to their children.

Even though quite a few of the adults here had skills in various martial arts fighting styles, they knew it wouldn't really be much help, seeing that the two Rangers were already having a hard enough time fending off the monsters with their weapons.

Mr. Oliver just wished that there was a way for them to be of some use to the Rangers, and make the process of getting out of here easier, and quicker for them all.

* * *

Jason crossed his arms as he looked towards the approaching island. Almost everyone else was down below deck talking and catching up on what was happening

He would have been there down there with the others but he, really just didn't feel like it.

Was it really a good idea to have Adam and Aisha go ahead and try to get all of the parents out of there by themselves?

Had he made a mistake in giving that order?

If anything happened to them, or their parents it would his fault.

He had told them that he could trust them with this mission, but, even he had his doubts when he actually started to think about it.

Why did he do that? He would put his trust in people, believing that they could handle the situation by themselves, without even considering the difficulty of the situation.

It wouldn't be until later, that he would realize exactly what he had just asked them do, and regret that he had even done so.

With a sigh, Jason looked down at his gloved hands.

"Maybe that's why Zordon made Tommy the leader." He muttered to himself.

For a while, Jason had gone with the belief that the reason why Zordon had made Tommy the leader was because he had some suspicion that the former Red Ranger was going to be chosen to go to the peace-conference in Switzerland.

But, since he had time sit back and think about the dangerous task that he had just put two of his fellow rangers into, and all the times in the past when he had given orders to the team....well....he had started to change his belief on why Tommy was made the leader.

Tommy would never just place a huge task on someone's hands, without much thought of the consequence; he didn't just immediately give a plan of action to his teammates and reassure them that they could do it, because he had placed his trust in them. He actually thought out what order he was giving, in consideration of his teammates well being. Just like a true leader should do.

Jason frowned as he looked down at the golden-diamond pattern on his Ranger gloves. Zordon has seen how irresponsible he had been with the lives of his friends, and knew he had to put a stop to it, and that is why Tommy had been made leader.

It was a wonder to him how Zordon had even let him keep his Ranger powers after all the times he had come up with a dangerous plan for his friends to carry out, and it was even more of a wonder to him, why Zordon had even let him return, if he knew how unqualified to be a Ranger he was.

He sighed as he looked over. He just hoped that they could get there to help Adam and Aisha in enough time.

* * *

The fog that usually covered the floor of the castle, lazily drifted around, drifting up in small swirls at it hit the throne in the center of the room.

A dull, clunking noise echoed around the chamber as Zedd tapped his fingers against the throne.

He has his eyes set upon the hourglass that had been placed on a table in the middle of the throne-room,

Every once in awhile his eyes would dart over to Ivan Ooze, who sat opposite him across the room, in a throne that he had conjured up for himself.

The man is here for only a day and he already begun to act as though he lived there and was the king of this place!

Beelzalea had brought him here, but for what purpose?

As he looked at her from across the room, he saw the white-haired magi sitting there with her head bent, as she looked down into the swirling fog beneath her feet.

She sits like an obedient dog, Zedd thought as he observed the Magi. She sits there with her head bent, and her mind upon other matters, until she is given an order.

Personally, Zedd felt that Beelzalea's current behavior was more how it should be. Maybe Beelzalea had finally begun to realize her place within this castle.

The look that was just visible behind the curtain of snow-white hair, did not escape Zedd's notice. Beelzalea's eyes would dart to him, and then to Ivan Ooze, and then back down the fog, repeating every few seconds.

There was something about that look that she gave, that made Zedd start to wonder.

It was the usual look of hate that she gave to him, but something was different about it. It almost appeared as if she were put off by something. He could tell something was bothering her, and it wasn't him.

Something was bothering her, and Zedd wanted to know what. Any information of what could be bothering Beelzalea would be a joy, since it would allow him to torment her more.

* * *

Trini smiled as she looked out the car window. It was such a great feeling to know that soon one of her friends would be reunited with their family.

Everything seemed to be going great; she had a good feeling about everything that was going on around her. She even felt that things were still going good with the other Rangers, despite the fact that they had heard nothing from them since they had left.

With all the optimism that she was feeling she couldn't help but smile. It was a beautiful summer day, (at least what was left of the day, it was pretty late in the afternoon already.) and the weather was great, and the scenery was even better.

The last time she had felt this great was when she was in Switzerland.

She tried not to let her worry get in her way of enjoying today.

Right now, she was slightly exhausted from the fun they had today, and was in a great cheerful mood.

They had gone and done a ton of shopping today, and while Trini knew that Kimberly would have loved to have been there, Trini knew that if Kimberly had gone with them, the whole day might not have been as fun, since Kimberly would have spent the most of the day worrying about her mother.

* * *

"We're arriving at the harbor!" One of the ship's crew called from above deck, to the Rangers below deck.

Kimberly gave a sigh as she walked up on deck, stretching. Her nerves were starting to get to her, and were making her back hurt.

She wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, and in enough time.

If Ivan or Beelzalea had even hurt her mother, they were going to pay.

"Jason. Tommy." Silver asked turning towards the both of them as she passed by Kimberly, almost pushing her overboard in her haste to talk to white and Gold Rangers.

The two looked at the co-captain of the ship as she approached them, both giving a hesitant nod as she addressed them.

"I'm to understand that the both of you are the people that Roan and I should speak to about any plans of action as soon as we are close enough to the island." She stated, giving a glance over her shoulder towards where Roan was standing.

Both Tommy and Jason looked over at each other for a brief minute. Neither one of them could really believe that Silver had wanted to speak to both of them.

Although the looks were the same, the thoughts that were behind them were completely different.

Tommy was smiling at Jason from behind his helmet; this was the first time in awhile that Jason had been mentioned as being the leader, right alongside him, and that someone had actually turned to the both of them to get their input on a plan of action.

It had been awhile since Jason had properly been called a leader, Tommy thought, even if he was sharing the title with him.

He knew it had to have been bothering his friend about having been pretty much demoted whenever he had come along.

Sometimes he wondered if Jason felt jealous because of this.

Tommy already knew that Jason had felt pretty bad about the whole incident that had led to him losing his Green Ranger Power, and he was sure he was still upset about it, despite everyone telling Jason it wasn't his fault.

But, he wasn't so sure how Jason felt about Zordon setting the title of "leader of the Power Rangers" upon the new White Ranger, whenever it had been pretty much established in the team way before that point that Red was the leader.

He was sure that Jason had some jealousy about it, even if he never expressed it, and said that Zordon couldn't have made a better choice.

Jason, on the other hand, was thinking exactly what he had been thinking before, and assumed that there had been some mistake in Silver thinking that both he and Tommy could be the leader.

"Sure, you have any plan in mind?" Tommy asked following Silver back over towards Roan.

Silver put one of her hands on her hip, as she laid a map out on the table in front of the two of them.

"The Island used to serve as a prison, so I can assure you that it is littered with traps. It would be unwise of you to go in alone, without some sort of escort."

Roan nodded, as he looked over at his wife, and then to the two Rangers.

"Lucky for you, quiet a number of us here have a good knowledge of the island and its traps." He stated.

Tommy nodded, well, that was one less worry on his mind, if Silver and Roan were going to helping them out on trying to avoid all the traps that they could on this island. The most he had to do, was come up with some sort of plan of attack, and try to get in contact with Aisha and Adam to find their current location and set up a time to meet up, so they could all escape.

"Now, when we get close enough to the harbor, As Roan and I usually do, we will split up. I will take my brigade on shore, and Roan will command the forces on the ship. They'll be providing cover fire against the soldiers that are stationed on the island." Silver continued.

She drew out their path on the map, while explaining to the Rangers what the plan was going to be once they had gotten onto the island.

"This is our plan, If either of you have any other plans on what should be done, as far as your team goes, please tell us, so that Roan and I can adjust our plans accordingly."

Tommy looked over at Jason to see if his friend had any other idea on what should be done.

"Your plan sound good, if the island is as dangerous as you say, we'll be needing some sort of guide to help carry out the remaining part of the mission in enough time." Jason began as he looked at the two pirates, and then down to the map laid out in front of them.

He then looked up and towards Tommy.

"But, first we should contact, Adam and Aisha. See how they're doing, and set up a meeting point." he began as he looked around the group.

Billy, who had joined the other rangers in the group at this point, nodded as he began to explain the calculations that he had made upon the teleportation system capabilities, and his scan of the nearby prison.

"Although, Beelazlea and Ivan were able to create a field to cut off teleportation signals within the prison, and within a mile radius around the prison, it doesn't seem like they were able to cut off any teleportation along the shore." He explained.

Jason nodded as he touched his communicator.

* * *

"Black-Frog, Yellow Bear...come in."

"We read you! What's up?" Aisha asked as she leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath from the last monster encounter that she had Adam had gone through.

"We're almost at the island. What's your current location?"

Aisha looked over at Adam, almost as if saying; do we really want to tell them that we're in sort of a bind?

"Still in the castle. Beelzalea and Ivan sure picked a good place; it's got tons of traps!! I mean in the last hour we've only been able to cover a few hallways, and still can't find the exit! Monsters keep turning up everywhere we go!" She finally stated.

At this point in the conversation, on Jason's side, Silver grabbed his wrist, and spoke into the communicator.

"Aye, listen well. If you are only a few hallways from your initial destination, keep on a lookout for a wall covered in vines. 10 steps away from it should be a loose brick in the wall, across from a rather awkward crack. If you push the brick into place, the wall should open. While you are holding the brick the wall will remain open. Whoever is holding the brick down has only two seconds to get across the hallway and through the door before it closes. This will lead you to a secret path, follow it straight ahead until you come to a split, take the right path, the left will just lead you right back into the prison. From there, take a left. At the third split, take a right and follow the hallway all the way to the end. You'll find your way out of the prison in no time. Just be wary, there may be monsters lurking here as well."

"Got it." Aisha stated into her communicator, glancing over at Adam to see if he remembered what the directions were, in case she were to forgot along the way.

Adam nodded and gave a thumbs up as he confirmed to Aisha that he had understood perfectly what they were looking for and that he was sure to be keeping an eye out for it.

"We'll meet you at least half a mile out from the exit. Teleportation will still be jammed, but from there we should be able to head down to the shore, by then we should be out of range of the field's greatest effects, since it's still close to the teleportation field, the teleportation signals should still be a little weak, but I think if we link our power together, we should have just enough of an energy boost to teleport, but I'm not sure where our teleportation trajectory will land us up....it could land us up in Angel Grove, another location on earth, or in an entirely different dimension." Billy stated to his two friends through his communicator.

"Isn't there some way that we can control where we are headed in the teleportation?" Aisha asked as she looked around at the Ranger's parents. She knew that after they got them out of this dimension they were going to be free from slowly ending up under Ivan's influence, but they still needed to be returned back to where they should be.

"With the amount of energy that we're going to have to expend in order to do a mass teleportation, no. I'll have to contact Alpha to see what he can do, as far as getting us guided back to Earth, but other than that...." Billy responded with a sigh.

Aisha gave a small grunt of annoyance that there wasn't way that they could teleport to an exact location, but at least it was something. As long as they were able to get away in this place in enough time, it would be good enough.

"I just have one question..." Kimberly asked over the communicator to her two friends, a hint of worry in her voice. "How is everyone?"

Adam gave a look over to the parents of the Rangers. In the light from the hallway that he could see them, they weren't looking too well. It seemed like Ivan's magic was starting to kick in on them, as the time was counting down. Some of them were starting to become pale and even if they didn't act like it, he could see all life and humanity starting to die from their eyes and their faces.

It would only be a matter of time before they would be blood-thirsty Zombies out to mercilessly kill them.

".....They're....doing just fine. I think they'll make it." He lied to the Pink Ranger.

He knew it would have been too painful for his friend to hear that her mother wasn't exactly doing as well as she had hoped, and that things were starting to look pretty bad. So he had to lie, in order to protect her from the truth that her mother, and all of the Ranger's parents were starting to be affected, and it didn't look like they were going to able to make it at all.

Heck, from the looks of things it didn't seem like they were in a good enough condition to make it out of this prison.

"Okay, we've got about an hour to meet up, and get down to the shore...So I guess we'll see you when you get here." Jason concluded as he ended the transmission.

Aisha sighed as she looked over her shoulder to the parents.

"Let's get going."

Nodding in agreement, the Rangers continued on down the hallway looking for the secret passage.

* * *

Jin Lain paced around her living room for quite a while after she had received a phone-call from her brother in Turtle Cove saying that he was going to be coming up to Angel Grove for the night.

Her brother hardly ever just spontaneously decided to visit, and never this close to nightfall.

Usually if he was going to be coming up to visit them, wherever they were living, he would have some purpose and make arrangements at least a few days ahead of time, to allow them to prepare to accommodate guests in the house.

There wasn't really any special occasion occurring within the next day. There wasn't going to be a family reunion any time in the near future. Usually if there was, she would have been getting more phone calls from her other siblings and her relatives telling her that they were going to be in town, asking if they wanted to meet up for a while, or if there were any good places to stay the night, if the house was too full at the time.

Hopefully, he wasn't visiting with bad news, like the death of their mother or something.

No, Jin thought as she shook her head, that can't be it. I talked to mother on the phone not but a minute before he called, and I'm sure she just didn't fall over dead like the second that she let go of the phone.

Of course, stranger things have happened.

"Jin, you should relax. Maybe your brother is just coming to see if we need any more help moving things in or unpacking. Also he may have some news that he would want to tell you to your face...like he's finally getting married or something." Mr. Lain stated from the kitchen as he made dinner.

Mrs. Lain laughed briefly after her husband had finished speaking.

"I doubt it. You know settling down for marriage is the last thing on that man's mind right now!"

Mr. Lain frowned as he looked down at the food he was cooking. His wife was starting to get into her nervous habits again. If something occurred that sparked her curiosity about why it was happening, she would start to pace the room, thinking of all the possibilities of what could have been going on.

"It's not going to do you any good worrying. I'm sure it's nothing bad. Your brother would have told you over the phone if it was something really bad."

Jin sighed as she looked out the window; two cars had just pulled into the driveway.

"That's his car, but who's the other car belong to?"

Holding her breath in anticipation as she stood at the door, Jin waited for the group to come up the drive-way and knock on the door.

Almost unable to hold back her curiosities she opened the door, right as soon as the group got to the door, before they had even rung the doorbell.

"Brother, what a surprise! Come in!!!"

The entire group followed Jin into the living room. All of them were a little curious about her sudden cheerfulness, which almost seemed a little forced through concern.

"I guess you should make yourselves comfortable. Try to find any place to sit, and if there is a box in your way, just move it. Sorry for the mess, we're still trying to get everything situated."

Mr. Kuriyo turned leaned over and whispered towards the group, as Jin ran around the room trying to straighten things out.

"It's okay, she always does this when she has unexpected company."

Eventually everyone found a place to sit down in the room. Things were already starting to become a little awkward to them all. They just weren't sure how to begin this whole conversation.

Earlier in the car, they had managed to get permission from Zordon to tell Kylie's parents that they were the Power Rangers, if it was going to make things easier for her parents to understand, but they weren't even sure how to begin to tell anyone this.

"Obviously, for you to be making a surprise visit up here to Angel Grove, especially with other guests, something must be very important." Jin stated, trying to begin the conversation.

"....But perhaps this would be best discussed over dinner?" Mr. Lain stated as he entered the room with a cheerful smile on his face. "How about you all have dinner with us, we've got plenty and we don't mind sharing a bit."

Agreeing, the Rangers and Mr. Kuriyo followed Mr. and Mrs. Lain into the kitchen for dinner.

Although the kitchen was cramped, everyone was eating pretty much elbow to elbow, and chairs had to be brought in from other rooms just to fit around the small table, the atmosphere was rather lively, and the food was good.

"You know, you kids look familiar. I have met you before, haven't I?" Jin asked as she looked around at the Rangers, her eyes bright and seeming more relaxed than they had been moments before this dinner had started.

Zack nodded, with a smile. He remembered this woman, but it didn't strike him who this woman was until just then. He had met her a few days back, when they had gone to Adam's house, to check up on his parents after receiving news of Adam's supposed death. She had been with Mrs. Park whenever the attack at the Cafe had happened, and had stayed with Adam's parents for awhile after returning home.

Jin's eyes turned towards Kylie at this point. A slight curious expression began to appear across her face. She had seen all the other kids that had accompanied her brother to her house before, but she had not seen this girl before.

She looked familiar, and it was starting to creep Jin out a little bit. This girl just wouldn't stop staring and smiling at her through the whole entire dinner.

"Hm. Jin....There is something that I needed to discuss with both you and Kouji. That's why I've come here without much warning. I have to talk to you about something that happened about fourteen years ago." Mr. Kuriyo stated, clearing his throat, as he noticed his sister's curious eyes upon Kylie.

At this moment, with this mention, Jin's face became pale, and her eyes began to become watery. She had to excuse herself from the table, as horrible memories had begun to come back into her mind of the incident.

Mr. Lain stood up, his eyes were narrowed, anger was starting to build up in him at the mention of this. He knew exactly where his brother-in-law was going with this, and he thought that he had made it clear a long time ago, that he didn't want to ever speak of that incident ever again.

He tried to remain calm about it in front of his guests, but he couldn't help but strike a harsh tone as he spoke to his brother in law.

"I've buried that all with the past; I think it would be good if you did the same." He stated stiffly as he looked down at his brother in-law. His eyes burning with anger.

Mr. Kuriyo bit his lip before opening his mouth to protest.

"But...Kouji...Ky--"

The other rangers were beginning to feel the tension building in the room. Even if Mr. Lain and Mr. Kuriyo were being very calm and dignified about it, they could tell it was just a mask to disguise a heated argument in their presence so that they wouldn't make themselves seem like terrible people for arguing in front of company.

"That's enough."

With this Mr. Lain turned and stepped outside, he needed some cold fresh air, as a relief from the stale heated air of a lingering debate that hung over the crowded kitchen.

Mr. Kuriyo sighed as he looked over at the other Rangers. Things had not gone well at all with this.

Zack crossed his arms and looked over at the others. This was going to be just about as difficult as they had figured it would be. It might have been fourteen years since the incident had occurred, but apparently the apparent loss of their daughter had not exactly something that they had gotten over.

"I'm thinking maybe that wasn't the best way to start out that conversation." Kat stated as she looked down the hall to the room where Mrs. Lain had gone. She could still hear her sobbing through the closed door.

"I think...I might know something that will make this easier..." Kylie stated as she got up from her chair and stepped out into the living room.

* * *

Finally the Rangers had landed on the island.

They found the whole island to be eerily quiet, despite the fact that there had been several monsters on their scanners not but a few minutes earlier. It almost seemed if the whole island had suddenly become deserted.

Something had to be up.

"....Keep your eyes peeled. I know they've got to be hiding around here somewhere, waiting for the opportunity to strike." Tommy stated as he drew out Saba.

The others nodded as they drew out their weapons ready to attack at a moment's notice.

It was always a bad sign if the place they were going to was silent. Usually it was signs of the enemy forces being focused elsewhere, or something worse.

"You don't suppose this is just a set up for an ambush do you?" Kimberly asked as she pushed some of the leaves of the over-grown trees that had fallen in front of her face out of the way.

* * *

From the moon, Ivan laughed as he watched the Ranger going through the forest.

"Well, at least she's smarter than she looks...."

Minerva smirked as she walked up beside Ivan. She crossed her arms and watched the scene of the Rangers wandering through the forest.

"Something tells me that you and Beelzalea have more than just an ambush planned." She stated as a mischievous smile began to cross her face as she put her hands on her hips.

If she knew her Magi, then whatever the other plan was, it had to be just evil.

Rita turned to Beelzalea, Her eyes bright with an eagerness to know what her Mother's Magi and Ivan had in store for the rangers.

Although she was eager to know the plan, she was a bit jealous that she wasn't getting to help in this plan at all. She was the queen of this castle after all, she was the one who had originally been after the Rangers, and therefore if the Rangers were possibly to be defeated, she had to be involved!

Zedd on the other hand, was not interested in this plan at all. If it had been up to him, he'd rather that Beelzalea and Ivan had nothing to do with this plan, other than having set up the traps on the island, after that they would have handed over control to him.

* * *

"This, looks like the entrance to the secret passage..."Aisha stated as the group looked at the vine covered wall beside them.

Adam nodded trying to feel calm about it; although he couldn't help but think that they might have just walked into another trap.

Mr. Cranston was looking at the wall in front of them with a little bit of skepticism, as he made calculations in his head.

The Rangers and the other parents watched him as he analyzed the mechanism that was supposed to open the secret passageway, and the opening of the passageway itself.

Finally he shook his head.

"....What's the matter Sir?" Adam asked as he approached the Blue Ranger's father.

Mr. Cranston looked over to the Black Ranger, it was obvious that he didn't have some good news about this secret passageway, since he was giving the black-ranger one of those looks as if to say, "I don't think you really want to know."

"Well, your friend, the one who told you about this passage, said that the passage door was only going to stay open for as long as someone was holding the brick back in place...and would only stay open for a few short seconds after the person let go....right?"

Adam nodded. That's what had been said alright.

Mr. Cranston nodded and continued on, adjusting his glasses as he spoke.

"Unfortunately, according to my calculations, it is almost impossible for any of us to make it across this hallway to the passage in enough time, and from the structure of this hallway, the whole hallway is prone to collapse in on itself at any minute."

"Someone's going to have to stay behind?" Aisha asked. It wasn't that she didn't understand what Billy's father was saying; it was more in the fact that she didn't like what Mr. Cranston was saying at all. There was no way that any of the parents were going to be left behind to either die, or become Ivan Ooze's slave.

"I'll stay..."

With this all eyes turned towards Mrs. Park, who had just spoken. Every expression, whether visible or not, was showing shock. This place had to be getting to her; she couldn't just be willing to just go through with something like this could she?

".....I-I mean, someone's going to have to stay behind right? It's impossible to get across this hallway in enough time, and if me staying behind and giving up my life can help you all save yours and help you all return to your kids...then I don't mind doing it." She stated, although her voice trembled with uncertainty.

Adam stepped towards his mother; his eyes were wide and terrified behind his helmet. He understood that part of her was being honest about risking her own life to help them all, but he could tell that part of her reason for wanting to do this, was because of him. She had already given up hope on ever seeing him again. She had accepted the rumor of his death as a fact and knew she couldn't face what she believed to be the horrible reality of it.

"Mo---I mean Ma'am! You can't do that! I won't let you!"

Mr. Park looked at his wife with a nod, as he put his hands on her shoulders, a serious look upon his face.

"I'm not going to just leave my wife here alone. So, if she stays so do I."

Adam turned toward his father, right now things were pretty much crashing in around him with his parents decisions. He knew partially why they were doing this, and he knew how to stop them, but doing so would mean for him to give up his ranger power, for having broken a rule of the Ranger Code. If he didn't do something he knew his parents would just go through with this, and he might as well have just given up his ranger power, for failing to protect the lives of those he cared about.

"We made a promise to all of you guys' children that we'd bring you all back safely....and that means that for no matter what reason we can't let you stay behind." Aisha stated crossing her arms and looking around the group.

"It is alright if we stay behind. You never made a promise to our son, about getting us out of here safely." Mrs. Park stated gently looking at the Yellow Ranger.

Looking up Adam stepped forward and looked at both his parents. Right now, his eyes were burning with a mixture of tears, anger, and fear, and his heart was pounding in his chest.

He let out a roar of frustration, grasping his helmet briefly. He couldn't just sit by helplessly and watch his parents throw their lives away like that.

Taking a couple of breaths to calm himself he paced the hallway for a couple of steps.

"The Yellow Ranger is right. No one is getting left behind. If one of us goes somewhere, we all go, regardless of impossibilities." Mr. Oliver stated looking around the group.

"How exactly long did you estimate for it to take someone to clear this hallway?" Mrs. Desantos asked, interrupting the conversation.

Mr. Cranston turned towards her, and adjusted his glasses. He could see a curious expression on her face as if she too were making an evaluation of the hallway.

"It should take approximately three-point-five seconds at a run in order to clear this hallway, but, it only takes 2 seconds for the passage to close."

"You calculated that at a normal run right?" Mrs. Desantos asked crossing her arms.

Mr. Cranston nodded.

"I think I can make it..." She stated turning towards the Blue Ranger's father.

"You do realize exactly how great the time that I calculated is from the closing of the passage way right?" Mr. Cranston asked.

Mrs. Desantos nodded and cracked her knuckles as she looked towards the other side of the large hallway.

Adam bit his lip, he wasn't so sure if Rocky's mother knew exactly what she was getting into. Sure, she currently held an unbroken record, which she had set while on the Track and field team at Stone Canyon High, but that had been set almost 20 years ago, and he wasn't exactly sure that she was still capable of running quiet as fast as she used to.

"Are you sure you can make it?" Mr. Desantos asked as he looked at his wife.

With a laugh, Mrs. Desantos put her hands on her hips, "I'm a fire-fighter honey! I've had to get out of buildings twice the size of this hallway, in less time, with a 200 pound person over my shoulders; wearing a heavy oxygen tank on my back....I'm sure I can make it."

With a slight smirk hiding behind their helmets, Adam and Aisha looked towards each other. There was something in the way that Mrs. Desantos spoke trying to reassure her husband that she was going to be okay, that made the both of them start to remember Rocky.

"Are you sure you can make it?" Aisha asked putting her hand on Mrs. Desantos's shoulder. Although she herself was certain that Mrs. Desantos could actually make it across the hall before the passage closed in enough time, she couldn't help but have her doubts.

Mrs. Desantos nodded, although there was a slight hesitation in this nod, showing clearly that she even had her own doubts, but was willing to at least try.

"Even though it's completely against my better judgment...and if anything happens, I'm never going to forgive myself...but for lack of better plan, I'm going to ignore the sane part of my mind right now, and allow you to do this.......Normally, I would never allow someone to do something this dangerous...but we have no choice..." Adam stated as he took a deep breath.

Aisha nodded, and looked over. It was against her better judgment to allow Mrs. Desantos to be about as reckless as her son, by throwing herself into danger, but they had no choice, no one could be left behind, and so they had to trust her.

"Alright, the brick seems to be about here. So, just keep it pushed down until we're all through...you know what to do after that." Aisha stated, as she led Mrs. Desantos over to where she was supposed to be.

* * *

The brick was sticking out of the wall about an inch, and was partially covered in loose vines. From the looks of it, this secret passage hadn't been opened in quiet awhile.

It was the only way that they were going to be getting out of here, so they would have to take their chances.

Taking a deep inhale of breath, Mrs. Desantos placed her hands upon the brick, and pushed it back into the wall.

The reaction of the secret passageway was almost instantaneous. No sooner had Mrs. Desantos pushed the brick into place did a rumble echo through the hallway, and the wall opposite of them began to separate.

"Alright, let's go." Aisha stated, as she started to lead the Ranger's parents through the passage.

As each one of the Ranger's parents headed into the passage way they gave a glance back to Mrs. Desantos, silently wishing her luck, hoping that she would get across the hall in enough time.

As Adam followed the rest of them into the passage, he gave one last glance back to Mrs. Desantos.

Had it really been right, not to allow your own parents to stay, but allow the mother of your best friend stay behind? He just didn't know.

Part of him wanted to say, no; that was a very stupid thing that had just been done.

But, part of him was set on relying on saying it wasn't stupid, and that she was going to just fine. Things couldn't go terribly wrong, not as long as they were around.

No matter what the situation had been before, the Rangers and whoever they were protecting would be alright. The Rangers had never officially lost anyone that they had been protecting yet, nor had they lost their own lives in battle, although many times they should have. It almost seemed as if the Rangers had an aura of luck hanging around them, and as long as anyone was around them, the luck would protect them, and they'd be safe.

Adam had come believe in this idea, an idea that many of his team-mates referred to as "Ranger Luck." Whoever they were near, had a certain amount of Ranger luck with them, and it would help get them through.

"Alright, that's the last of us here....."Aisha stated as she finished counting all of the adults.

Mrs. Cranston bit her lip as she strained her ears to hear down the hallway, she could have sworn that she had heard something coming towards them.

Apparently everyone else heard it too, because the group had fallen deathly quiet as they all tried to strain their ears to listen to what was coming.

Aisha hoped that the sound that they were hearing was nothing more than a lingering echo of the passage way opening.

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

After a few seconds, they saw the hulking forms of several monsters starting to come their way from both sides of the hallway.

To make matters worse, the vines that had been around the brick seemed to have come to life, and was trying to wrap themselves around Mrs. Desantos's hands and feet.

"RUN!!!" Adam found himself shouting from across the hall to Mrs. Desantos as the monsters began to swarm the hallway.

Panic had begun to fill Mrs. Desantos as she saw the monsters swarming the hallway, and took notice of the vines trying to wrap themselves around her arms.

_'Okay, treat this like any other fire', _she thought as she looked down both sides of the hallways towards the monsters that were rushing at her, _'stay calm'._

With a sharp intake of breath, Mrs. Desantos released the brick, and quickly wrenched her hands free from the vines around her wrists.

Quickly she ran away from the wall, her heart was pounding inside her chest. She could see the passageway starting to close, while the Black and Yellow Rangers were trying to put some force into the passage way's opening to keep it opened for at least a few more seconds, although their attempts seemed to be of no avail.

Rocks were starting to fall from the ceiling, as this place was starting to collapse in on itself.

As Mrs. Desantos ran, one of the falling rocks' sharp edges would occasionally cut at her, as she weaved around the hallway, hurtling over some of the large chunks of debris, that had already fallen in her way and vines that seemed to be growing quickly throughout the hallway grasping hold of anything that remained stationary for more than a few seconds.

Maybe this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be, she thought as she looked ahead. With all the weaving around things that she had to do, getting across the hallway was taking longer than it should

As she approached the other side of the hallway, she saw that a huge wall of vines had burst out of the ground, blocking her way to the others.

_Oh, God, no!! What am I supposed to do? I can't jump over it, and it looks too thick to just run through! That wall reaches all the way to the ceiling...it would take too long to climb it!_

Although this obstacle was close, Mrs. Desantos continued to run at it. The least she could pray was that something miraculous would happen whenever she hit the wall, like she would somehow be able to throw enough force into the wall to allow herself to break a hole in it and just barely come through it.

For a brief second as she ran, Mrs. Desantos swore she heard a whistle, as if someone was trying to get her attention. She could hear it clear as day above the roar of the hallway; it was almost as if she could hear it in her head.

A brief red light darted across the hallway, just in the corner of her vision.

Suddenly, she felt an extra weight in her hands as continued to run.

Giving a brief glance down to the object, she was stunned to see that it was a weapon.

"Oddly convenient, suspicious, But If it can cut through this wall, I'll take it."

With a roar, Mrs. Desantos slashed at the vines as she approached them.

To her surprise, she found that the whole wall was obliterated in a red light right before her eyes. Although she knew that she couldn't stand to watch this stunning display of power, knowing that the building was still collapsing at an alarming pace, (if not quicker because of the attack that she had just launched upon it.), and that the opening to the passageway was starting to close rapidly.

I'm almost there!

She could see the opening, although rather narrow at this point, just right ahead of her a few feet.

"Hurry!!" The yellow ranger shouted, she was just visible behind the gap in the wall, and although her face couldn't be seen from behind the helmet, Mrs. Desantos could imagine that she was looking rather panicked.

Pushing off from the ground, Mrs. Desantos leapt across the remaining few feet of the hallway, just as the door closed.

* * *

With a quick forward roll, she managed to squeeze herself in to the passageway with all of the others.

As she knelt there catching her breath, a loud boom was heard throughout the hallway.

Turning back, would no longer be an option.

"Ma'am....are you alright?" Adam asked as he knelt down to Mrs. Desantos.

It was hard to see in this hallway, but the dim light of the torches that lined the hallway provided enough light for Adam to see that Mrs. Desantos nodded in reply to his concern. It was also enough light to see that she had a huge smile across her face.

The smile was one similar to one that Rocky usually had whenever he had just accomplished something difficult, or had just done something completely dangerous.

"Woo, that was a rush!" She stated getting to her feet and brushing some of the sweat from her forehead, with her free hand.

Without much word, Mr. Desantos embraced his wife in a hug, showing that he had concern for her safety, and had been almost sure that she wasn't going to make it for a moment there.

"How did you get past that wall, it just shot up out of nowhere!!?" Mrs. Hart asked curiously as she approached Mrs. Desantos.

At the mention of this, Mrs. Desantos remembered the weapon that had appeared up. Before now, she hadn't even known what weapon had just appeared in her hands, all she had known was that it was useful and that she had needed it.

Now, as she held the weapon out for everyone in the group to see, she managed to get a good look at the weapon herself.

It was a sword....

....and not just any sword....

"That's....!" Aisha stated in shock, bringing a gloved hand to the mouth of her helmet to suppress her shock.

"No Way!! Impossible!" Many of the parents exclaimed in awed tones of voices as their eyes fell upon the weapon.

"...The Red Ranger's Power Weapon...." Adam finally stated as he looked down at the weapon, nodding.

Regardless of the light in the hallway, this weapon was undoubtedly the Power Sword.

Looking back towards the closed passage, Adam gave a brief smile.

_Thanks again for the help Rocky._

_"_Come on, we'd better get moving..." Aisha stated after a few seconds, putting her hand on Adam's shoulder before

* * *

Ivan growled angrily as he watched the scene before him.

The two Rangers and all of the parents had managed to find a way around his own trap, and it looked like they were going to be able to get out of the prison without any trouble.

"Face it Ivan, you'll never be able to outsmart the Rangers. All of your uncreative traps are too easily foiled." Zedd stated with an evil laugh.

Personally he enjoyed watching the Rangers escape. It was amusing watching Ivan's plans being foiled by a group of teenagers.

It just proved to him, that Ivan was no better than he was.

"It's not Ivan's fault the plan was foiled." Minerva stated as she flipped open her green-feathered fan, and looked back at her daughter's husband.

"Then whose fault is it? The only other person left to blame for a weak trap is Beelzalea..." Zedd growled as he tapped his fingers against the throne.

As he spoke her name he gave a glance back to the Magi.

"You're blaming Beelzalea? Hmph! A likely story that her traps would be foiled by a bunch of teenagers. If it wasn't for her traps, some of the best warriors in the galaxy would still be alive, and the planets they fought for wouldn't be under my control." Minerva stated crossing her arms.

Rita nodded agreeing with her mother.

"Unless...." Minerva started, her eyes shifting over to the Magi who stood behind the throne, almost hidden in the fog.

Zedd's eyes followed Minerva's, almost joyfully. He wanted to see how Beelzalea was going to work her way out of this one!

Beelzalea was finally being confronted about her sympathy for the Rangers, and it was sure to be written all over her face that she had purposefully made the trap fail.

"My Queen, I am shocked that you would believe that I have purposefully allowed the Rangers to slip past the trap unharmed! Have I not served you loyally in the past?"

Zedd growled as Minerva nodded and turned away from Beelzalea. Minerva seemed to have bought her story without question.

Well, if everyone didn't believe that Beelzalea had caused the trap to fail, then who was to blame?

"If you're looking for anyone to blame Zedd, I suggest you try to blame the Red Ranger....or rather remnants of his power, that are lingering around the Rangers, which are having an reaction to the traps that we have set, allowing anyone that the Rangers are closest to, achieve anything such as making their way past activated traps unscathed, by merely wishing for it."

Rita stamped her foot and began shouting, "Well what are we going to do about it?! We can't let those Rangers just escape!!!"

"Do not worry my Mistress. I had a monster planned for just such an occasion."

It didn't take long for the Monster that Beelzalea was talking about to find the Rangers.

* * *

Aisha's shoulders had been tense as they had walked through the passageway; it was to be expected, whenever she was left to the task of keeping a close guard on someone.

Personally, Aisha hated doing this job and was usually lucky enough to have someone else have to keep a watch-out for enemies while they were sneaking around.

As soon as she was assigned with the job of being a guard and keeping a watch out for monsters, that was immediately when she started getting bad feelings about the area that they were in, and her paranoia would kick in.

With an amplified sense of paranoia, came an amplified sense of hearing and observation. Almost every little sound in this hallway echoed ten times louder than it should have, and she started to take note of every little crack and imperfection in the scenery around her, as well as of everyone's actions.

Being paranoid, made her highly less trustful of everyone and everything around her.

As she walked down this hallway, her shoulders started to become more tense than normal. If her shoulders became any more tense, she believed her shoulders would undoubtedly ended up crushed.

"Maybe it's just me...but it feels like something has been following us ever since we made that first turn..."

Adam and the Ranger's parents stopped temporarily and looked towards Aisha to see if there was anything that was following them.

However, all they saw was the torch-lit hallway from where they had just come from, and nothing else.

Shrugging it off, Aisha and the group continued down the pathway, from the directions that they had been given, it seemed like they were getting pretty close to the exit anyhow.

In fact, Aisha swore she could see the faintest spark of sunlight at the end of this path, and if her nose wasn't deceiving her; the air around this area seemed to smell a little fresher than the stale air from earlier.

Surely the exit was directly ahead of them, and if they continued down this path they would get to their destination in enough times.

As soon as she thought this, her breath suddenly caught in her throat as she heard a soft slithering sound, as if something were taking shape a couple of feet behind her.

She could feel it's breathing on her neck, and its eyes boring into her neck.

It was almost as whatever was behind them had its sights on just her, as if it were trying to analyze her.

Turning around, she saw nothing. Even though the feeling of being watched lingered around, more intense than it had been before.

She shrugged it off, gripping the power daggers tighter in her hand.

Something was definitely there, even if she couldn't see it and she knew it was bound to reveal itself eventually.

The monster hissed lightly as it looked down at the yellow ranger as it followed them, crawling like a spider along the ceiling, remaining hidden in the shadows.

So this is the Yellow Ranger? It thought, as its eyes turned yellow. Beelzalea had told him about the rangers, and said that they were to be eliminated and that it was his task to eliminate them.

_Hm. A lightening based Element to the Ranger Power?_ It thought, _that could prove useful, lightening is pretty powerful._

As it crawled above the group, its body began to shift from the spider like form it had just moments ago.

With a light thud, it released its grasp from the ceiling, landing gracefully behind the group of Rangers. A pair of wicked looking yellow daggers gripped in its hands.

Hearing this thud, Aisha and the group froze in their tracks, and turned towards the source of this noise.

A creature, with a human like appearance was standing there. They were clothed in armor that resembled a mix between the Bear Zord, and the Yellow Shogun Zord.

In the parts were skin would have been exposed; the creature appeared to have a collective and solidified mass of shadow.

"Who are you?" Aisha asked, as she backed away from the monster.

The creature tilted its head and crossed its arms staring unblinkingly at the Rangers.

"I, Shadow Chameleon, am the strongest and most loyal servant of my mistress..." It stated, its eyes flickering as it spoke.

"_Who_ are _you_, Yellow Ranger?" it suddenly added before Aisha and the other could make any sort of comment, or movement to retreat.

Aisha put her hands on her hip. That was an absurd thing to ask, even more absurd that this creature had asked and answered this question all in one shot.

She was the Yellow Ranger, that's who she was. If this creature knew that then why did it even bother asking?

"I'm afraid you've wasted too much time in trying to answer my question...." The monster stated, sparks starting to come from the edges of the daggers.

With one loud roar, the monster rushed at the rangers, swiping the daggers through the air.

As the daggers cut through the air, giant yellow bolts of electricity released themselves from the sharp and jagged tips, traveling through the air towards the group.

When the bolts hit the ground missing the group only by a few inches, they exploded, causing some of the hallway to crumble, creating a wall between them and the monster.

"C'mon let's get out of here before anymore trouble shows up." Adam stated as he looked at the pile of debris.

Aisha and the group nodded, and they all took off running down the hallway.

_Let's go before more trouble shows up_? Aisha thought recalling her friend's previous words. _Trouble has already shown up! This whole place is nothing but trouble!_

* * *

Kimberly bit her lip, as she looked around the place. They had arrived at the place where they were supposed to be meeting up with Aisha and Adam, and had been here for a good few minutes, but the two rangers had never shown up.

The smoke that was rising from above the trees in the direction of the castle was starting to worry her.

She hoped they were okay, and on their way there.

After all, she really wanted to see if her mother was okay.

"They'll be fine Kim. I'm sure they just had a minor hang up on something. I mean, it's got to be difficult leading that many people out of a place like that safely." Jason stated as he sat down on a nearby boulder.

"Aye, that fortress is one tricky place, but it is possible to escape." Silver stated as she paced the area.

Billy nodded and placed his gloved hand on Kim's shoulder silently, to reassure her that he agreed with what Jason and Silver were saying.

No sooner than he doing this did they hear a loud rustling of the leaves on the nearby path leading towards the castle.

Something big was coming towards them.

Tommy quickly crawled up to the top of a larger boulder nearby to see if he could see what was coming towards them.

"What in the hell?" He caught himself saying as he squinted to see if he could see any better at whatever was coming towards them.

In a matter of seconds, a large group of familiar looking people ran into the area.

Kimberly felt her heart leap with joy as she recognized the group that had just appeared. In fact she was sure that every Ranger in the group right now was experiencing the same sense of joy and relief that she was experiencing.

She quickly rushed over to her mother, kneeling down to the woman who was trying to catch her breath.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" She asked.

As she looked at her mother, she took notice of how pale and sickly looking her mother appeared to be. It appeared that Ivan's spell had really gotten to her mother.

However, her mother was smiling as she wiped some sweat from her forehead.

"Well, with all things considered in what has happened in the last day or so, being out in the fresh air, and getting a little exercise, even if it is running for my life. I'm good." She laughed.

Kimberly smiled as she looked down at her mother. Even if she didn't look very good right now, her mother always kept her spirits up and tried to make light of the situation she was in.

Mrs. Hart got to her feet, and dusted herself off, and ran her fingers through her hair to fix some of the strands that had come loose.

"Kimberly is never going to believe this story when I tell her!" She stated to the Pink Ranger who stood before her.

The Pink Ranger gave a slight laugh. "I'm sure she won't."

_Just like I'm sure you wouldn't believe that your daughter is a super-hero, and you're talking to her right now. _Kimberly thought with a brief smile from behind her helmet.

"From here, we've got 30 minutes to make it down to the beach, and teleport, and with that monster chasing us down, we'd better get going if we're going to make it on time." Billy stated turning to the group.

Silver bowed her head for a second. "We'll accompany you to the beach, disarming any additional traps we may have missed earlier." She stated.

Billy nodded to Silver before turning to the group.

"Alright, let's get going!"

* * *

"Some genius plan your monster was; killed by rocks." Rita scoffed as she shot a glance towards Beelzalea.

The white-haired Magi took several graceful, glide-like, steps over to the balcony.

"My mistress. I assure you that the Shadow Chameleon is not a useless monster."

With an inward smile to herself, she placed her hands on the railing before her. "You shall see for yourself soon mistress."

* * *

Kylie slowly approached her father. Her power coin was clutched in her hand. She could feel its embossed metal surface against the palm of her hand.

It had been a little while, since her father had gone outside before Kylie had decided to follow. She had to ask permission from Zordon this once, to see if it was okay to bend the rules that the Ranger code had put in place.

"Nice night out here..." She stated, as she looked up at the darkened and stormy looking sky. She knew that her words weren't quite right.

Mr. Lain only gave a brief grunt as he acknowledged the younger girl's presence.

"I noticed you were kind of mad back there..." Kylie continued, her voice cracking with an uncertainty of how she could get this conversation going smoother.

Crossing his arms, Mr. Lain frowned and kicked at the grass under his feet.

"It's a family quarrel, over something that happened a long time ago..." He finally stated after a few seconds, seeing how Kylie wasn't going to leave.

Kylie nodded showing that she understood.

A silence had fallen between the two as Kylie tried to figure out how she should continue the conversation from here.

After seeing her father become angry whenever her uncle had mentioned her, she knew she had to tread through this subject lightly.

"Please, don't get angry when I ask, but this, thing that gets you mad when spoken of...is your daughter?"

Mr. Lain raised an eyebrow and looked down at the dark haired girl wearing purple who stood beside him.

That was a strange way of putting it, but yes it was the mention of his daughter that usually sent him into a fit of anger. After all, he had gotten over it enough that he didn't feel the need to speak of her every time there was a chance he figured that others should learn to do the same.

"It was my fault. I shouldn't have gone into the desert to do research on that stupid medallion, or at least I should have never let Jin talk me into allowing her and Kylie come along with me. I should have known something like that would have happened." He muttered to himself, unaware that he was speaking loud enough to be heard.

Kylie unfolded her hand, and outstretched her arm towards Mr. Lain.

"Medallion...something like this?"

She watched as Mr. Lain's eyes became wide with horror, and he backed away from Kylie, as if the power-coin she held in her hands was a deadly snake about to strike him.

His breathing was heavy, and quickened, as his mind started to race through the memories of all the awful things that had occurred that one day in the past.

"Kai, my brother in-law set you up to this didn't he?! He's purposefully trying to torture me isn't he?!"

"If I were you, I'd get rid of that thing, it's cursed. Trust me!" He added in an additional panic.

Kylie closed her fingers around the coin, and put her hand back down at her side, and looked at her father curiously.

"...I've barely known Mr. Kuriyo long enough for him to 'set me up' to doing anything to torture you." She stated raising her eyebrow curiously as she looked at the haunted expression on her father's face.

Mr. Lain crossed his arms and looked over. "Hm. maybe your right, Kai wouldn't ever purposefully decide to torture me, especially not about that, knowing how much it would upset Jin as well."

After a few seconds of silence, Mr. Lain looked towards Kylie, his eyes curious.

He had a couple of theories starting to form, about Kylie, although he wasn't sure how valid any of them were.

This girl standing before him could be an illusion of his mind, brought on by fourteen years of stress and grievance for his daughter that finally decided to take shape knowing that his daughter's death was going to be mentioned tonight.

However, the problem with that was other people had acknowledged her presence tonight. Since other people had taken note that she had been there, that meant that she clearly wasn't just a figment of his imagination.

Of course, then there was the other theory, that this girl might possibly be his daughter's ghost, that had just appeared tonight had had been following his brother in-law around.

The problem with this theory was obvious, his daughter had only been two or three years old when she had died, so her ghost being a teenager would not make sense.

Then there was his last theory. Easily ignored because he knew his daughter was dead. There was no way that this girl could possibly be his daughter.

But to prove the validity of at least one of these theories, there was one thing that he had to ask.

"Where did you find that medallion?"

Kylie opened her hand and looked down at the coin in her hand.

"I've had this....about fourteen years now. It used to belong to my father."

Mr. Lain took a step closer to Kylie as she replied. His interesting had been piqued; with her response.

The time frame did match up.

"How old are you?"

"16, I think.....sir..."

The girl didn't even know her own age for certain, that didn't make a whole lot of sense, Mr. Lain thought raising an eyebrow.

Kylie crossed her arms. She knew what her father was trying to get at. He was slowly trying to get her to reveal her name to him, although all these questions were nothing more than background check to help him build up the courage to ask.

"It's as I was trying to tell you Kouji..." Mr. Kuriyo's voice came from behind the two of them. Causing the both of them to turn and regard the other man with curiosity.

Mr. Kuriyo took a step towards them. The light from the inside of the house was casting a warm glow behind him, but obscuring part of his face in shadows.

"This little lady right here claims she is Kylie Lain." he stated putting his hands on his niece's shoulders as he spoke.

The trio stood in silence for a few minutes. Kylie and Mr. Kuriyo had smiles upon their faces, even though Mr. Lain was looking skeptical.

Just because this girl made claims that she was Kylie Lain, didn't mean that she was. After all, any one could just make claims that they were someone that they weren't.

"....I know your still doubtful Kouji. But, I believe that the medallion that this girl holds is proof enough that she is your daughter." Mr. Kuriyo stated with a shrug as he stepped over beside Kylie.

Mr. Lain crossed his arm. He wanted to believe them, but that would mean the least plausible theory he had--the one where this girl was actually his daughter, alive and well--would be true.

If there was one thing that made this claim untrue, it was the design he had saw upon the coin that was in the girl's hands.

"....It's a raptor...not a rabbit." he stated.

Mr. Kuriyo raised his eyebrow curiously, what was his brother in-law talking about. Raptors and rabbits?

"The design on that coin, it's supposed to be a raptor, not a rabbit."

Kylie bent her head and looked at the coin in her hands.

"....It was, until recently."

Mr. Lain frowned, how could he be sure that this girl still wasn't lying to him? Honestly he wasn't in the mood to put up with people lying to him, and trying to deceive him, and he was starting to lose his patience with this girl.

"Look, Kouji, I'm sure if you need more proof, this girl is willing to take one of those tests that proves that she's your daughter." Mr. Kuriyo stated with a sigh as he put his hand on his forehead.

His step-brother could be so stubborn some times.

Kylie bit her lip and reached into the side pocket of the purse that she had gotten today. There was only one thing that was going to clear this all up.

From the side-pocket she withdrew a rather charred up and old journal.

"....this is yours..." She stated, although it sounded more like a question than anything.

Mr. Lain's eyes were wide as he saw this. The journal was indeed his. He remembered it from all those years ago, remembering that it had been caught in the fire that day.

"I found it in the place that my adoptive mother Ceres, used to call 'my home'....she said it was something that my father kept while researching...said he was a scientist..."

Kylie could see her father become more relaxed, as he started to believe this. Only his daughter would have been out that far in the desert to even know where that old place was.

Mr. Lain's eyes were starting to water up, as he tried to restrain his tears at the sight of his daughter.

Hell, Kylie thought as she brushed away some of the tears that were starting to roll down her cheeks. It didn't look like either one of them were going to be walking away from this dry eyed by the end of the night.

Before Kylie could even take a step towards her father, she was nearly tackled in a hug by someone she didn't' even realize was standing behind her.

Once her vision had cleared up and the hug had loosened enough for her to turn around, she turned and looked up into her mother's teary eyes, and smiling face.

"Oh, Kylie! Is it really you?!"

Kylie gave her mother a warm smile. "Yes, it really is me, mom." She stated before embracing her mother in a tight hug, tears starting to roll down her eyes freely.

* * *

The beach was in sight.

There was ten and a half minutes left.

_We're going to make it! _Tommy thought to himself with a sigh of relief as he followed behind all of the others.

With the distance that the beach was from them, there was no way that Beelzalea or Ivan could have set up any additional traps to prevent them from getting out of there.

Of course, Tommy knew better than to be so sure of himself about that.

Just like if there was a way for them to get past any difficult solution, there was a way for their enemy to place a trap right where they least expected it.

"Alpha! We're almost outside of the Teleportation disruptor barrier...prepare for mass teleportation." Billy stated into his communicator as he ran.

"_You got it Blue Ranger_."

"Alright, once we get to the beach, we're going to have to link hands in order to for this to work. Just a word of advice, stay close, and whatever you do don't let go." Billy called over his shoulder to the parents.

"I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave just yet Power Rangers." A voice came from just ahead of them.

Tommy felt his hope just come crashing down on him, sinking into a bottomless oblivion as he looked at the black-armored monster that was before them.

"Oh you again! I thought we got rid of you already!" Aisha stated in shock.

The monster appeared to have a smirk upon its shadowed face. "I never let a question of mine go unanswered."

Motioning towards the black armor that was upon its body, the monster added. "As you can see, I have changed my power to reflect that of the black ranger."

Its eyes turned towards the Black Ranger, narrowed upon him as if trying to further analyze him.

"Which means, the question now goes to you Black Ranger. You have ten seconds"

Adam tightened his grip on the Power Ax, as he stepped to the front of the group.

"I don't have time for your stupid questions!"

The monster gave a growling laugh, as he pulled an Ax that looked very similar to the Black Ranger's power weapon.

"What's the matter Black Ranger? Are you afraid of answering a simple little question?"

In one quick motion, Adam flipped the Power Ax around, and switched it over to cannon mode and aimed at the monster.

He knew what this monster was trying to do.

It wanted them to answer his question, by revealing their identities. Adam knew that if they purposefully revealed themselves like that, without special permission; especially with their parents....normal civilians in other words, undoubtedly --due to restrictions that had been set upon them when they had received their powers-- they would be stripped of their powers.

Without their powers, they would be defenseless, and not to mention stuck in this dimension.

They would be easy targets to destroy.

"_Who are you_? That's all you have to answer..."

"Shut up."

"....Answer incorrect."

With a grunt of annoyance, Adam attempted to fire the cannon at the monster.

A dull click was all that came from the cannon.

Not too soon after this failure of power, the power Ax vanished from Adam's hands.

Tommy rushed at the creature, his weapon drawn.

He didn't know what had just happened to cause Adam's weapon to fail or even to disappear like that, but he was sure that the Shadow Chameleon had something to do with it. Directly attacking this creature head on seemed to be the best option.

The Shadow Chameleon smirked as the white suited Ranger came closer to him, rushing at him, ready to drive the tiger-saber through him.

In one giant bounding leap like a frog; the Shadow Chameleon vaulted himself high into the air.

Tommy felt his breath caught in this throat as he saw the monster high above them, almost lost in the violet and orange light of the evening sky.

Quickly he had to sidestep the falling monster, as it came crashing into the ground, driving the edge of the ax into the sand.

Upon contact with the edge of the blade, at least three or four feet of ice covered the sand in this spot.

Tommy swallowed hard. It was a good thing that blade hadn't struck him, if it could easily freeze the ground like that, god know that it would have done to his head, or even if it had managed to cut open his ranger suit and draw blood.

"What are we waiting for? We can't just let him fight alone!" Kimberly shouted as she drew out the power bow and rushed towards the monster, joining Tommy in his fight.

Billy looked to Jason, Aisha, and Adam. He wasn't sure if they should be joining in on this fight. After all, time was running out for them to get out of here, and Alpha was surely almost finished, adjusting the teleportation systems, so that they could be leaving this place.

"We have to hold him off until Alpha is finished." Jason stated drawing out his weapon and looking towards the battle.

"Hopefully Alpha hurries up." Aisha stated giving a glance back to the adults behind them.

With a fierce battle cry, the four rangers rushed into battle joining their friends.

"And, so the question goes on to you White Ranger!" The Shadow Chameleon shouted, slashing at the White Ranger with the ax, missing him by only a few inches.

As it's weapon passed by the white Ranger's suit, it waved like a hologram for a few seconds, before in a motion similar to water rippling in a pond, it solidified once more, into a wicked looking dagger, resembling Saba, except that it did not have a tiger's head upon it.

The monster's armor drained itself of color and began to shift from resembling the frog zord and the black shogun zord, to resembling the Falcon Zord and the White Shogun Zord.

"You have ten seconds to answer my question, or else you'll end up just like your two friends; the Black and Yellow Rangers."

Tommy cast a look to the two rangers that this creature had mentioned.

He noticed that the two of them were the only ones who didn't have their Power Weapons drawn out, and were having difficulty summoning, (or really re-summoning, since one of them had just had the weapon vanish on them, and Tommy assumed that the other had this same incident happen to whenever the two had encountered this monster earlier.)

Every time they tried to re-summon their weapons, from the "mallet space" they existed in prior to their use, a brief spark or wisp of powder like snow would appear, but quickly be extinguished. The weapons not appearing.

What had this creature done exactly? Tommy wondered.

Unfortunately trying to figure out this, and trying to attack the creature; had caused Tommy to waste the time that the Shadow Chameleon had set upon him to answer the question.

Tommy felt Saba vanish from his grip, just as he was about to land a strike on the monster.

The Shadow Chameleon let out a laugh as he watched the White Ranger quickly draw his hand back, looking at them as if he couldn't believe what had just happened.

He swiped at the white Ranger, sending a beam of white-light towards him.

Tommy jumped out of the way of the crescent shape of white energy that had been released from the dagger.

His dodge got him out of the way of harm, but took the Gold Ranger completely off guard.

Jason grunted as he was knocked off his feet by the blast.

He had taken hits like this before, but there was still something about being hit with pure energy that stung worse that anything he had ever felt in his life, and to be hit square in the chest by it was even worse.

Quickly Jason got back to his feet, and returned a like attack at the Shadow Chameleon, causing it to draw its hand up to its face, recoiling in pain as the blade of the scythe cut across the bird like armored face.

"Fine, it looks like it's your question now Gold Ranger."

* * *

"The Shadow Chameleon barely does anything to the rangers, and yet they're almost dropping like flies!" Goldar growled as he watched the scene from the moon palace.

Zedd looked towards Beelzalea. Her mouth was draw into a tight curve, and her eyes filled with a look of satisfied glee.

"Unbelievable. Shadow Chameleon seems to be more advanced and useful than any of the monsters that Finster has ever made!" Rita stated with a look towards Finster.

Finster seemed to be deep in thought about something else at the moment, too busy to pay any attention to Rita's comment, even if it was an insult to him.

"What's the secret to this monster...? I mean what's it been doing exactly?"

Beelzalea's white eyes turned to a greenish gray as she looked towards Rito, who had been the one to ask her this question.

"Shadow Chameleon runs a quick analysis on its enemy, and shifts its power to reflect that of the target, and uses that power against them. When he asks them a question; any sort of question, he will place a time-limit upon the rangers. If the time runs out....access to that Ranger's power is blocked, and will remain blocked until the question is finally answered."

"So, they're powerless?" Ivan asked turning from the image of the rangers in battle towards Beelzalea. The monster had not been a part of their plan for this island.

Beelzalea crossed her arms and looked over, her face stern looking.

"Not necessarily. They still have the capabilities of teleportation, and enough energy left to stay morphed. But every other power, such as Zords and weapons and any special attacks are blocked." She stated as she began to pace the room.

"It's a lose-lose situation for the rangers. Reveal their identities and get their power taken away, or they leave the question unanswered and have their powers blocked off. Genius!" Rita laughed gleefully.

Zedd growled under this breath. He could have thought of a monster just like that if he had been given the opportunity. Besides Zedd himself could point out a ton of flaws that this creature had.

He knew better than to be jealous that Beelzalea was getting praise for her idea, but he just couldn't help it. Ever compliment she received just put him that much lower on the scale of respect. Soon she would be getting more respect than even he, the ruler of this castle, was getting.

* * *

Shadow Chameleon had managed to cut off all but two of Six Ranger's powers by the time that Alpha had finally managed to call, alerting them that they were ready for teleportation.

"We'd better get out of here while we still can..." Billy stated as they rushed over towards the group of parents.

He was sure that there was only a matter of seconds left for them to get out of here anyhow. Most of their time had been wasted trying to hold off this creature.

Quickly, they all linked arms.

The Shadow Chameleon wasn't going to let them get away that easily. As the teleportation field was just starting to appear, he quickly leapt forward latching his bird-like talons into the White Ranger's shoulders.

A bright light came before all of their eyes, and the feeling of being lifted off of the ground occurred shortly after.

_

* * *

_

Thud

.

"Uhgggh..." Mr. Oliver managed to say as his side made contact with the ground. Who ever had teleported them could have tried to put them down a little lighter, and even on their feet, he thought. But he supposed it didn't matter. After all they were out of that place....and he didn't hear that faint buzzing of looming destruction in his head anymore.

"Every---everyone alright?" Mrs. Cranston asked as she sat up, adjusting her glasses upon her face, and took a look around the room.

"I think so..." Mr. Park stated as he got to his feet looking around at the place. "But...._Where are we_?"

This place, it was full of technological equipment that didn't seem to be of this earth. A blue control consol took up most of the room in this area; the lights upon it were blinking in random sequences.

Was this a space-ship? Mr. Cranston caught himself wondering. The technology here was simply amazing! He just couldn't help but stare in awe and wonder at everything around him. He just couldn't decide what to focus on first.

"The Command Center?" The blue Ranger asked, causing all of the parents to turn their attention towards him.

So that's where we are, Mr. Cranston thought with a nod of understanding. This was the base of operations that the Power Rangers worked out of, the one that the Black and Yellow Rangers had mentioned earlier.

"Ah, Oh?! Welcome back Rangers.....and others?" Alpha stated turning from the consol towards the large group. He was rather surprised to see that the whole group had landed in the Command Center. The teleportation field had been arranged to bring them back to a safe location close to Angel Grove.

Mrs. Hart's eyes went wide in surprise as she noticed the strange robot talking to them. She had never seen anything like it before.

"What are we doing here?" Billy asked curiously as he looked around at the group. He was personally surprised that the command center had even allowed their parents in like that.

"Uhh, Guys, that's not important right now... _Look!" _Kimberly stated pointing towards the viewing globe.

The screen was showing a giant sized Shadow Chameleon just on the outskirts of Angel Grove. It would only be a matter of minutes before started causing havoc in the city.

"We're going to need to call the Zords..." Tommy stated as he took a step towards the viewing globe.

The others agreed with silent nods.

"Wait! What about what that monster? Remember what it did back there?" Mr. Campbell suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah, I know for a fact that four of you can't even use your power weapons...and the question time limit that that monster placed on the Pink Ranger already ran out...so I can bet you anything, that if you can't use your power weapons, you might not be able to summon out Zords..." Mrs. Campbell added putting her hand on the Yellow Ranger's shoulder, to keep her from going.

"Mrs. Campbell is correct, I'm afraid. The Shadow Chameleon has closed off connections to the morphing grid for five of you. As a result, you only have enough power to remain morphed, but not enough to call upon your Zords to battle."

Tommy gave a sound of protest, about to suggest that they look for another way, but Jason put his hand on his friend's shoulder. There was nothing that they could do in this situation and they would just have to sit this one out.

Giving a look to his friend, Tommy nodded, and then looked towards Zordon.

"Then we'll have to use the new Zords...." He stated with determination ringing in his voice. That monster was going to be destroyed one way or another, even if he wasn't able to help.

Billy took a step forward. "I'll take the Wolf Zord out and try to hold him off from causing too much damage until the others arrive."

"But, what if that monster decides to turn that question on you?" Kimberly asked a worried tone in her voice.

"Then hope that the others get there in enough time..." Billy stated before teleporting out of the room.

_

* * *

_

Beeep! Beep! Beep!

The communicators' alarms went off, causing all of the rangers in the Lain family's living room to suddenly jump and look towards Kylie's parents.

Each of them were trying to politely excuse themselves even though the emergency that this alarm indicated was more than enough excuse for a hurried leaving , and signal that it was time to go without further alerting Kylie's parents that they were indeed the Power Rangers.

Only a few seconds after the communicator alarms went off, a loud siren screech was heard from outside.

"A Monster attack? This late?" Mrs. Lain wondered as she looked out the window towards the horizon. She could see the looming shadow of a monster in the early evening mist that was covering the distant Down Town Angel Grove.

"Umm... We...really ought to be going." Tanya stated slowly getting to her feet and casting nervous glances towards her two friends, and then even more nervous smiles towards the three adults sitting across from them.

Everyone nodded, getting to their feet and headed for the door.

"Wait...kids, your leaving during a monster attack?" Mrs. Lain asked hardly able to believe that they would even consider doing this. She was sure that even they knew that they shouldn't be out during a monster attack.

"Well, we sort of _have_ to...mom..."

"No you don't. You kids are staying right here until this attack is over. I'll call your parents and tell you that you are here. I'm sure they'll understand." Mrs. Lain stated getting up from where she was sitting and walking towards the phone that was attached to the wall near the hallway.

Kat bit her lip and looked towards the others. She couldn't just come out and say 'the monster attack isn't going to be over until we get out there....' unless she just wanted to make things worse.

Zack crossed his arms and began to think of a solution that would allow them to get out of the room. Even though he had just met Mrs. Lain, he was sure she was one of those mothers who during a monster attack wouldn't let the people in her house go anywhere without someone else unless they absolutely had to.

Only, Mr. Kuriyo knew that they were the Power Rangers, having accidentally found this out.

So, the rule of 'never reveal your identity to anyone' had an exemption to accidental discovery and special emergency circumstances.

They couldn't exactly just make it look like an accident that they had morphed...even if they had gone to another room and teleported out of there and had accidentally been discovered that way.

It seemed like the others were having difficulty with taking on this monster, if they had been called in for assistance.

"Well guys this looks like a definite 'special circumstance'....So....should we?"

Trini nodded reaching for her morpher.

The others took a deep breath of hesitation before reaching for their morphers.

"Alright. It's Morphin' time! Silver Ranger Power!" Zack called out holding out his morpher as the gray light emitted from it.

The others followed, calling out their respective colors as the lights shot out from the morphers, transforming them from their ordinary clothing into their ranger gear.

"....I'm sorry mom and dad. I would have told you both earlier...but I was told that I couldn't tell! The most I was allowed to do was show you guys the power-coins so that you would know that it was me!"

All Mrs. and Mr. Lain could do was sit there in wide eyed shock, unable to believe what they had just saw, that whole group, had just turned into Power Rangers right before their eyes. They were the Power Rangers, and their daughter was one too!

"It's okay, we'll be sure to bring Kylie back safe!" Kat stated before the group teleported out of the house.

* * *

Billy had done his best holding off the Shadow Chameleon for the last few minutes.

Lucky for him, the Shadow Chameleon's questions were ineffective against the Wolf Zord. Even if the blue ranger was inside of the Zord and the question was directed at him, it all seemed to bounce off of the Wolf Zord.

_Maybe it's because I've always felt like I was a part of the Wolf Zord, and if it asks that question...it's simply answered: I am the Wolf. _Billy thought as he launched a barrage of lasers at the Shadow Chameleon

Of course, this was hardly the time to be thinking on almost poetic/philosophical points, since the Shadow Chameleon was still coming at him with all its force and the others had not arrived yet.

Shadow Chameleon had shifted powers to reflect the wolf Zord's own water based powers, so the Wolf laser's attacks only did minimal damage.

Several minutes into the battle, Billy had managed to have the wolf Zord latch it's mechanical mouth onto the Shadow Chameleon's left arm, causing the monster to howl in pain as the razor sharp 'Teeth' that lined the inside of the Wolf Zord's mouth dug into its shadow-like skin.

Vigorously the Shadow Chameleon began to swing its arms around, trying to shake the Wolf Zord.

It took several powerful swings before the Wolf Zord was sent flying, landing with a crash on the street, after skidding across the pavement for several feet.

Billy had to cover his ears as the Wolf Zord went sliding down the street. The screeching sound of metal against asphalt was not a charming sound. Even though the sound was temporary, its earsplitting tone rang in Billy's ears amplified to an unbearable roar that tore at the Blue Rangers ear-drums.

As the wolf Zord came to a halt, Billy exhaled his breath. He was feeling rather disoriented, since the wolf-Zord had taken a couple of flips before it had hit the ground, and while it was sliding across the pavement.

From his blurred he saw two streaks of Orange and Bronze fly past him, followed shortly by an explosion.

"You alright down there?" A voice came over his intercom system.

As Billy got the Wolf Zord back on his feet he took another breath as he looked towards the Zords that had arrived.

"Yeah. About time you guys got here though."

Billy gave an inward smile as he looked towards the Six Zords that had arrived. He had been waiting to see a few of these new Zords in action.

"Wow, this is so cool! I can't believe I'm actually piloting a Zord!!" Tanya stated cheerfully as she adjusted her grip on the controls of the Lion Zord. She had always dreamed of doing this, imagining how awesome it would be.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself there. We've still got a monster to take down, and we can't be losing our focus." Trini warned with a lighthearted laugh as she pushed a few buttons on the control panel, and fired a blast towards the monster.

"Ah, come on; let her have a little fun. If I seem to recall, you were just as excited as her when you first got to pilot a Zord." Zack replied with a laugh, right before sending the Owl Zord swooping down

The Shadow Chameleon recoiled as blasts from the Wolf, Lion, and Tiger, and Dragon Zords hit its armor, cracking it.

In response, the monster took aim at the Owl Zord and sent a blast of water towards it.

The blast grazed the left wing of the Owl Zord as Zack maneuvered the bird Zord out of range.

* * *

Zack had to admit, he was quiet enjoying this new Zord himself.

Back when he had been the Black Ranger, he had been in control of the Mastodon, and later the Lion, Zords. Both of those, Zack imagined, were probably much similar to driving a tank, since they were both large land based vehicles.

Now, the Owl Zord was completely different, aside from the obvious fact that this zord was flying, (which that reason alone was part of the reason that Zack was enjoying this Zord.)

The only problem that Zack had with the Owl Zord was that the controls were a lot more sensitive than he was used to. If he just barely tapped the controls, he found that the Owl Zord would take off in a nose-dive, or begin barrel rolling through the sky.

He had to constantly remind himself that this zord wasn't like the previous two Zords he had commanded, and that he didn't have to bear down on the controls just to get the Zord to do what he wanted it to do.

* * *

"So where are the others?" Kat asked from over the intercom

"Well, we ran into some complications with this monster earlier, and they're having a few problems with their powers " Billy responded as he dodged out of the way of a concentrated blast of silver colored air, as the Shadow Chameleon had shifted its power to reflect the Silver Ranger's power.

"Figures so...but at least you guys are back safely." Kat stated.

She brought the Dragon Dagger to her lips and commanded the Dragon Zord to launch missiles at the Shadow Chameleon.

"Safe for now, Rangers. Even if I can't block off your power because of your Zords, my power is still superior to yours, since your powers are weakened...because of damage I have done to your counterparts in the 'Great Power'." Shadow Chameleon growled as he swung the bladed Nunchucku at the Dragon Zord.

The attack caused the Dragon Zord to stumble backwards and fall on a building nearby, destroying part of it, and causing an explosion to take out part of some of the buildings around it.

* * *

Alone stood atop a nearby building watching this battle. His arms were beside him; his hands were open and relaxed as he looked on at the battle. From behind his masked-shogun-like helmet his light blue eyes were calm looking.

"This tactic again...." he stated to himself aloud.

His arm gently shifted so that his hand was gently resting against the handle of the katana that was sheathed at his hip. He should be helping the Rangers, and he knew that.

But, without a Zord, he was just about as useless as the other five rangers were. The Minute that the Shadow Chameleon could target him. He would be blocked off his own powers.

Besides, Alone thought as he looked down at the ground. The last thing that the Rangers would need in this battle would be for the Shadow Chameleon to shift over and match his power, being able to utilize it against them.

"....bring out Shadow Chameleon, your first general, to weaken your opponent. Do you plan to launch an all out assault on this planet soon?" He asked the open air, as he watched a burst of purple energy fly the building that he stood on, just barely making contact with the Shadow Chameleon.

* * *

Kylie jumped slightly as the lasers fired from the Rabbit Zord's eyes. She had not been expecting that to happen.

Pressing a few more buttons, the Rabbit Zord bound into the air, nearly landing on a building.

Giving a mental grunt, Kylie felt her face go red under the purple helmet. She was probably looking like a complete idiot out there to the others; she didn't even know how to pilot a Zord!

It looked like it was second nature to all of them! Heck even Tanya, who had just as much experience as Kylie herself did at commanding the Zords and being a ranger seemed to know what to do

_Calm down Kylie, _She could hear a voice saying. Although it was in her head, she swore she could hear the voice loud and clear as if whoever was talking to her was right there with her.

"Ceres?"

_Yes my child. It's me._

"I don't know what I'm doing..."

_That's quiet alright. That's why I'm here. Usually the first time piloting a Zord, the Power does most of the work, and guides the pilot for the most part, until they can figure out what to do. You are new to this Zord, just as Tanya and many of your friends are new to their Zords, despite some of them having previous experience with Zords...and like you will, they have their animal spirits guiding them._

"Thanks Ceres!" Kylie stated happily as she looked towards the control panel.

As she reached towards the controls she could begin to feel an instinct in her head, an instinct she knew to be Ceres's guidance, which seemed to tell her exactly what needed to be done.

* * *

"Man! That guy just keeps shifting his power!" Kimberly stated as she watched the viewing globe. The Owl Zord had just been knocked out of the air by a powerful blast of ice from the now purple armored monster.

"The Shadow Chameleon shifts power based upon the its last attacker. After shifting power, it aims for an opponent with an opposing element....to do the most damage to it." Alpha stated as he read off the data that they had gathered so far over the battle.

Jason slammed his fist down on the edge of the control panel. His frustration with this whole situation had become greater with the passing moments that he was barely able to contain it any more.

"We should be out there helping them!"

Adam crossed his arms as he looked towards Jason. He knew how irritated his friend was, he believed the same thing that his friend believed, but knew that it was impossible.

"It only shifts to one attacker's power...." Mr. Cranston suddenly stated as he watched the scene on the viewing globe.

The Ranger's parents had been silent for quite some time as they watched, in shock, the battle that was going on.

"See? Whenever the Lion and Tiger Zords attack in unison, it only shifts its power to one or the other." Mr. Cranston added as he pointed at the globe whenever the two zords he mentioned attacked.

"Maybe the monster can't handle more than one power at a time, because no matter what they are, they'll either balance out or completely oppose each other...which leaves him vulnerable." Mr. Campbell suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

Aisha looked up from where she was standing, it seemed like there was a good idea in this...

"So...then why not combine all those forces into one, and go for an attack? I mean surely your megazord, doesn't switch over to an entirely new element when all parts are combined?" Mr. Oliver suggested as he watched the battle.

Tommy clenched his fist. That just might work!

"Guys, Go into Megazord mode. Shadow Chameleon might become overwhelmed, and might not be able to shift power."

_"Got it!" _Zack stated over the communicator.

"Alright guys and gals. Let's do this!" He added to his team-mates.

* * *

With a nod in unison, all of the Rangers reached over and flipped the necessary switches and pressed the appropriate buttons for their Zords to start going into Megazord mode.

As each of the Zords made the transition from being individual animal Zords, into being pieces of a whole, Each of the Rangers teleported out, and joined each other in the main control room that was located inside of Tor's head, even though the Owl Zord was officially the head, it acted as more of a helmet than anything.

It was an awkward Megazord if anything.

With the Dragon-Zord Spear, the "replacement parts Megazord" slashed at the Shadow Chameleon

Shadow Chameleon did not seem impressed by this sudden shift from six Zord into two. However, it did seem rather angered that it was only able to shift into matching the Blue Ranger's power, instead of constantly changing targets.

* * *

Alone watched from the rooftops, his eyes narrowed behind his helmet as he looked towards the fight as in continued on.

Having the "Replacement" Megazord out there was a good plan, but it still wasn't enough. Not when the Wolf Zord was still out there providing something for Shadow Chameleon to draw its power from.

"...and even if they were able to get Shadow Chameleon to go into his true form at this rate. One Megazord isn't going to be enough." He mused to himself as he watched the Megazord get slammed against the road.

Right now, Alone thought, there were six other Rangers that needed to be out there, but couldn't be.

Frowning Alone turned away from the battle and looked towards the sky. He knew of a way that he could help, even it was nothing more than a temporary solution and wouldn't exactly reverse the Shadow Chameleon's affects on the other Rangers, but it would give them the upper hand.

_Unfortunately, it is just one more thing my superiors may frown upon._ He thought before vanishing.

* * *

"Uuugh!! Come on guys get up!!" Kimberly shouted in frustration as she saw the Replacement Megazord and the Wolf Zord get knocked to the ground once more.

This fight was not going exactly as she was hoping, and she really wanted to change that. If only they could call out the Ninja Megazord. Heck the Shogun Megazord would work too!

"Alpha, can't we do anything to try to establish some sort of connection with the Ninja Megazord and the Shogun Megazord?" Aisha asked turning towards the robot. Her voice was full of concern and anxiety, which it almost came out as a squeak.

"I'm afraid that is impossible." Alpha responded.

He felt pretty bad for the Rangers, He knew they wanted to help, but there was just nothing they could do, unless they wanted to risk losing them in the morphing grid by boosting up the power output, but even that wouldn't help, and might harm the others whose powers were still working.

Either that or just have them give up their powers completely by revealing their identities. And with that option there would be no way that the Power Coins would even bother to recognize them as the rightful possessors...and so replacements would have to be chosen.

"I think I might know a way..." Alone's voice suddenly spoke up.

All eyes turned towards the armor clad man had just appeared.

A silence fell around the room for several seconds before Alone began to explain his plan.

"The power that I posses and utilize in my 'ranger' form originated in part from the Great Power of the Ninjetti itself. While morphed, I can shift power and animal spirit at will...." Alone began.

Kimberly crossed her arms. To her something was still fishy about Alone's story about his power, but she dared not ask any questions in regards to what he was saying, not when it seemed like he had some sort of plan on helping them out.

"Even though my power is similar to the Ninjetti Power...it is regarded as a separate power itself." Alone continued.

"And your point is?" Tommy asked curiously crossing his arms.

Alone turned towards the White Ranger, as he began to explain further.

"If I can temporarily transfer some of my power to each of you to match the animal spirit you possess, your Zords and weapons may at least recognize traces of the corresponding Ninjetti Power, and can be operated."

"Really?!" Aisha asked, almost hopeful.

"It is dangerous, mind you, and there is a chance that the differences between my power and the Great Power of the Ninjetti are too great for you even to accept even a piece of my power. In addition, my power may have a violent reaction to what little power you are capable of access...and could very well kill you." Alone continued, casting a look towards the Yellow Ranger.

He noticed that the Yellow Ranger seemed to slump back down to where she was sitting, clearly she didn't like these risks at all.

None of them liked these risks, but what other choice did they have?

"Well, I'm up for these risks, no matter what happens." Jason suddenly stated, catching everyone by surprise.

Usually it was Tommy who was trying to convince everyone that they had to take a risk, and gamble their power and their lives for what might end up proving to be a complete failure by the end of it, Jason was usually the one who was hesitant about taking risks until he had a logical approach to it, ruling everything else out from being an option.

"We can't just let our friends get clobbered by this monster. We're a team, and if what Alone said earlier about the our power being a part of a collective 'Great Power' then we can't just let half of our power get destroyed. If they go down....then what chance to we have, if more than half of the Great Power gets destroyed...we're only going to be at half strength. Not even that, with the current situation. If they go down, we might as well just hand the Earth over to Rita, Zedd, Beelzalea, and all of them and tell them we surrender." Jason stated, his eyes burning with a fierce determination behind his helmet.

Kimberly nodded. She agreed with what Jason was saying whole heartedly. They had to take a risk or else--she gave a look towards her mother--or else everything that they had just worked for would have been for nothing.

Surrender just wasn't one of those words in the Power Ranger's vocabulary.

Tommy took a step forward and nodded, showing that he was in agreement with taking this risk.

Not too long after, Aisha followed, knowing that there wasn't much else that she could do. They were her friends, and Jason did have a point, plus she didn't think she would have ever been able to forgive herself if Rita and Zedd took over Earth and she had done nothing to try to stop them.

Adam gave a look towards his mother, even though he knew she didn't know it was him, He was in on this too, even if it meant actually making those rumors that his mother had heard true.

"Even if we die, we can at least say we tried something..." He remarked.

With a smile, Alone motioned for the Rangers to line up in front of him.

"But what about the Red Ranger's Zord?" Tommy asked after a few seconds.

Now that he thought about it, In order for this to work like it should, Rocky should have been there. Someone had to pilot the Ape Ninja Zord unless they wanted to go with a Ninja Zord that was missing an arm.

Alone gave a hesitant smile from behind his helmet.

"That is exactly what I was just about to get to." He stated turning away from the rangers

"I will try to access control of the Ape Ninja Zord through the use of my power."

There were a few minutes of silence as Alone tried to gather the energy to bring himself to continue to speak. He turned his gaze towards the Ranger's parents.

"I have dealt with Shadow Chameleon in the past, and I feel that additional help may be required."

Tommy didn't like the sound of Alone's voice or the way that he was looking towards their parents at this point. He wasn't seriously expecting _them_ to help was he?

"The Shogun Megazord may have to be utilized. If it is alright with each of you, I would like to give you a temporary control over a part of my powers so that you will be able to join the rangers in combat."

Well, Alone was being very blunt about this wasn't he? Kimberly thought as she looked towards her mother. Personally, Kimberly disagreed with the idea completely. She didn't want her mother putting herself in danger like that. Plus, having to temporarily accept a power that Alone himself has said could potentially kill the Rangers.

If it could probably kill a group of people who still had a trace of Ranger power with them, Kimberly could only imagine that it would certainly kill a normal person!

"But we don't even know the first thing about piloting those things!!" Mrs. Campbell began in protest.

Alone gave a weak smile from behind his helmet that was directed at her. "That is no problem, and it is exactly why I am asking all of you for assistance. At least 11 of the 12 animal spirits should be able to handle the Shogun Megazord, so you will not have to actually do anything."

Mr. Oliver clenched his fist as he nodded in agreement saying that he would definitely accept that power if it meant helping out the Rangers.

"Well, you rangers did help us out of that awful place. So, the least we can do to repay you, by helping you out." Mrs. Hart stated, before biting her lip nervously.

One by one, the Rangers parent's began to agree to take on a piece of Alone's Power temporarily in order to help out the Rangers.

Nodding, the Ranger's parents lined up beside the Rangers, until a long line had formed.

Prepared to transfer his power, Alone withdrew the katana that was at his hip, and approached the first Ranger.

Tommy took a deep breath as he stood in front of Alone. The dark-armored warrior's armor changed from being solid black to being black with a white feathery pattern on it.

Alone focused a part of this power into the weapon in his hands, causing the weapon to glow with a radiant white light.

As the broad side of the blade gently touched Tommy's shoulder, he could feel the power rushing through him.

Even though he hadn't realized that he had been feeling drained at all, Tommy suddenly felt energized.

The feeling lasted only temporarily as Alone removed the blade, and proceeded onto the next person, the color of the light energy that was focused into the sword changing, as the pattern upon Alone's dark armor changed.

Once Alone had made his way around the room giving pieces of his power to everyone, he bowed his head as he looked towards all of them. The pattern on his armor was now a flame pattern, in bright blood red. Showing that he had already changed his power over to match that of the Red Ranger's so he could attempt to control the Ape Ninja Zord.

It was obvious by the way that Alone's hands were starting to shake slightly, that the previous power transfers had taken a lot of energy out of him. The others just hoped he'd have enough power to help them finish this fight.

* * *

"Oh...wow...Look at this!" Mrs. Campbell exclaimed after a few seconds.

Upon receiving the small bit of Alone's power, the Ranger's parents had morphed into ranger suits. The suits were much like the Ranger's suits, except where the Ranger's had a diamond pattern upon their suit, the Ranger's parent's had two stripes of gold, running from the neck of the suit down to the boots, only being covered up by the black belts that they wore, which had no morphers upon them. The Ranger's mother's suits were all fashioned with skirts which is where the gold stripes stopped, and instead of leggings that matched the rest of the ranger color suit, they had black leggings and boots that were in their proper "ranger" colors.

Each of their helmets were fashioned to look similar to the Rangers' helmets, except with a streak or two of black here and there on the helmet.

"Finally, Spandex that doesn't make me look fat..." Mrs. Hart joked as she examined the pink suit she was wearing, and adjusting the helmet on her head.

Jason had to admit, seeing all of his friend's parent's decked out in Ranger gear, was pretty....well, _weird_.

It was funny that at least one of the Ranger's parents seemed to have gotten a ranger suit that matched their child's ranger color.

Tommy's dad was wearing a white ranger suit, while his mother was decked out in a Bronze suit.

Kimberly's mother was of course, wearing pink like her daughter.

Billy's mother and father were wearing ranger suits in green and blue respectively.

Aisha's father was wearing Orange, while her mother was wearing yellow.

Adam's Father was now standing there wearing a silver colored ranger suit, while his mother was wearing black.

And, finally, Rocky's parents. Jason took note that Rocky's father was wearing a gold Ranger suit, like he was, and Rocky's mother had taken up the ranger color of her son.

Jason had never expected to be able to fight alongside his friend's parents like this. Even if their power was temporary.

"Alright, I believe we have wasted enough time...your friends are in danger, and we must hurry." Alone stated shakily as he re-sheathed the katana he held in his hands.

With a quick nod, everyone teleported out of the room.

* * *

Shadow Chameleon was getting the best of the Replacement Megazord and the Wolf Zord at this point in the battle.

Trini and the others were starting to become frustrated with this whole thing. There just didn't seem to be any way to defeat this guy! If this continued up like it was, they were going to end up taking out half of Down Town Angel Grove if they weren't careful.

Suddenly a blaze of fire streaked through the sky temporarily, colliding with the Shadow Chameleon.

All eyes turned towards the two Zords that had just appeared.

Billy could hardly believe it, he had been sure that the Ninja Megazord, and the Shogun Megazords would have been generally inoperable, due to the problems his friends were having with their powers some time ago.

"Look like you guys need some help..." Billy heard his mother's voice state joyfully over the intercom.

For a second he couldn't believe what he was hearing, until the situation had been explained by Jason.

Without a further word on the subject, Billy quickly set the Wolf Zord to transform to a part of the Ninja Megazord.

Shadow Chameleon was very unhappy with this. Now he had three targets, and not one of them could he draw any sort of power from.

"Fine, you wanna play that way?!' He shouted suddenly as he looked around the group.

A vortex of dark purplish-black energy started to form up around the Shadow Chameleon as his form began to change one last time.

As the energy cleared, Shadow Chameleon had turned into a very Lizard like monster. Even though it looked like a green armored Chameleon, the sharp spines all over its scaly body seemed to suggest otherwise.

"Let's see how you like me in my true form." He growled. The shadow Chameleon's voice suddenly contained an otherworldly growling undertone too it as it spoke. Its eyes were flickering vibrantly.

The Shadow Chameleon flicked its tongue towards the Ninja Megazord, before sending out a barrage of spiny needles at it.

The Ninja Megazord was hit by the needles, which caused minor explosions on the surface of the Zord, but did no further damage. To this the Megazord did a flying kick towards the Shadow Chameleon sending him towards the Shogun Megazord.

The Shogun Megazord swiped at him with its sword, sending the Shadow Chameleon towards the Replacement Megazord. This stuck at it with its weapon, sending the Shadow Chameleon off towards the Ninja Megazord.

* * *

This game of pass and attack went on for several minutes until the Shadow Chameleon was very disoriented and weakened greatly. He was panting heavily as he looked around the group of Megazords that were around him.

"You may have me beaten Power Rangers, but my mistress will control this world. Her influence has already begun to change things around this world, and is growing stronger by the day." Shadow Chameleon panted out as he looked towards the Ninja Megazord.

"You tell your mistress Beelzalea to bring it on! We're ready for whatever she throws at us." Tommy stated bravely as he looked towards the other Rangers, with a confident nod.

He didn't know if it was this other power talking, or if he really did believe that they could work past whatever was in their way.

Everyone else seemed to be feeling this exact same confidence. (With the exception of Alone, who was just standing there looking down at the controls in front of him silently.)

"Beelzalea, my mistress? Ha! What do you think I am, some sort of manufactured clay and magic monster? She has no control over me!"

"Then who is your mistress? Minerva?" Zack asked harshly, although with curiosity booming in his voice.

Shadow Chameleon laughed as it flicked its tongue. Even though it didn't speak, the laughing alone proved to them that Minerva wasn't the mistress that it was talking about anyhow.

"I believe one of you already know....." he added darkly after a few seconds, looking towards the Ninja Megazord.

The Five Rangers' in the Ninja Megazord turned their eyes towards Alone, who was looking straight ahead his hands gripping the controls tightly, ready to attack.

It was obvious he was the one that Shadow Chameleon had been talking about. After all he had stated that he had dealt with Shadow Chameleon before.

"Alone?" Tommy asked curiously, trying to see if the black armored man would begin explaining thing to them.

However only silence came from Alone as he stood there. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, what torments were running through his head. All they knew was that they weren't getting an answer out of him anytime soon.

"Boost up the Power output in all three Zords, and focus it in the weapons. When I say fire, attack at once, and finish this guy off..." Alone stated sternly after a few seconds.

Everyone hesitated, if they destroyed this guy they weren't going to get to hear anything else, and would be left with questions of their own that Alone certainly wasn't going to answer.

Besides the Shadow Chameleon, Alone was the only one who seemed to know what was exactly going on anyhow.

"But..."

"Do it--" Alone commanded sternly looking straight ahead.

Shadow Chameleon was laughing as he sensed Alone's anger. He had managed to strike a nerve in the boy that he had been hoping to strike.

"He..." Kimberly began in protest.

"_Now_!" Alone barked turning towards the Pink Ranger. His voice was unusually harsh and demanding, completely unlike the calm tones that it usually carried. It was almost as if he was fighting to reach out and strike someone.

Without another word the Rangers, in all three Megazords, began to do as Alone had told them to do.

_

* * *

_

He'd better be explaining stuff later, or at least giving some sort of apology.

Kimberly thought bitterly as she and the others waited for Alone to give the command to finish off the shadow Chameleon. Personally, she was pretty angry herself that Alone had decided that he was going to start giving them orders, and then shout at her like that without warning. She didn't care if he was angry, there was no reason for that what so ever.

Who did he think he was the leader?

Well, whoever he thought he was, Kimberly certainly didn't like his attitude.

* * *

"Fire!"

In one simultaneous blast, the three megazords attacked the Shadow Chameleon. The resulting explosion created a bright multicolored light, which engulfed the monster, and lit up much of the night sky of Angel Grove. Through the light, everyone could hear Shadow Chameleon giving one loud screech as he was disintegrated into nothing.

As the battle came to a close, there was an awkward, uneasy silence that had fallen between all of the rangers.

The silence lasted long into the time that all 23 of them returned to the Command center.

No one knew what to do next. After all there was still the issue with their powers going on; that Alpha alerted them was still causing a problem, even after Shadow Chameleon's death.

Some were afraid to even speak to Alone, at the risk of him still being rather edgy.

"Well, that was rather fun. Thank you for giving us this opportunity." Mrs. Cranston stated turning towards Alone, finally able to bring herself to say something to break the silence before it crushed them all.

Alone de-morphed from his outfit, returning to the black trench coat and military-like uniform that he usually wore. He gave a calm smile to Mrs. Cranston, thanking her and the other Ranger's parents for volunteering for such a task.

One by one the Ranger's parents removed their helmets and looked towards the Rangers, with bright cheerful smiles on their faces.

"Well, you know our true identities. So I think, as temporary fellow Rangers, it is only fair for us to know yours." Mr. Oliver stated as he rested the white helmet on his hip and looked towards the other adults beside him.

* * *

The Rangers all looked to one another hesitatingly. Should they? That wouldn't be breaking any sort of rule that it would end up taking away their powers would it?

It would reverse Shadow Chameleon's affects...

Kimberly nodded as she looked towards the others. "It's got to be okay. I mean, they're fellow rangers. Remember when I ended up in the past that one time? I didn't lose my power and they knew who I was..." She began.

Tommy and the others nodded, remembering Kimberly's trip to the past, and encountering their ancestors, and giving them the ability to become Rangers.

Tommy was the first to reach for his helmet; he looked towards his father and mother as he started to undo the latches on the side of the helmet. "Now, don't be too surprised..." he warned them teasingly.

Mrs. Oliver didn't exactly understand why the white Ranger would be making such a joke, especially directed specifically at them like that. What did he have some sort of deformity on his face that was so shocking just to behold. Did he even have a face? Did he even have a human face?

_....Or is he my son, standing right there in front of me?_ She thought once Tommy had completely removed the helmet, and she saw her son's face smiling back at her.

She had to admit she was pretty shocked.

Here she had thought that Tommy was a very open and honest kid, and all this time he had been running around behind her back hiding the fact he was a super-hero.

In his father's eyes, Tommy could see an overwhelming sense of pride in the knowledge that his son was keeping the town safe. Tommy himself couldn't help but feel a little more proud about being a ranger, knowing that even if his father didn't say it directly, he approved of what his son was doing. Even if the risking his life part wasn't exactly a very pleasing bonus to that.

"To answer Shadow Chameleon's question. I am Tommy Oliver. The former Green Ranger, current White Ranger."

Tommy didn't know why he stated his name like he did, everyone in the room already knew his name...and just seeing his face could have been answer enough to the question. Tommy guessed it was better to make absolutely sure the question got answered so the affects of the powers would be reversed.

Billy followed Tommy, taking off his helmet.

"Billy Cranston. The Blue Ranger." he stated with a slight smile as he looked towards his mother and father.

He noticed that his father seemed to be rather surprised. It was as if his son was the last person in the world that he had expected to do something as dangerous as being a Power Ranger.

Mrs. Cranston on the other hand, seemed to be on the verge of fainting. She was leaning on her husband for support to help her keep herself balanced before she completely fell over from the shock of it all.

"Kimberly Hart. The Pink Ranger." Kimberly stated as she removed her helmet and ran her fingers through her hair. She had a rather ashamed look on her face as she looked at her mother, silently apologizing for not having told her mother sooner.

"Kimberly, this....This certainly does explain a lot of things..." Mrs. Hart stated as took a few steps across the command center and embraced her daughter.

A hug had not exactly been what Kimberly was expecting. She had expected her mother to be angry that she was putting herself in danger to save the world. Her mother had never really approved of her doing dangerous things anyhow. Kimberly couldn't help it as she began sob.

Aisha followed after Kimberly. Removing her helmet and giving a shy smile towards her parents as she removed her helmet.

"Aisha Campbell. The Yellow Ranger."

Both of Aisha's parents embraced her, like Kimberly's mother had done for Kimberly, even though both of them were admittedly a little confused and shaken up by this whole thing.

It explained so much to them. Such as why before they had moved to Angel Grove, Aisha had been really unwilling to move and then after the Ninja Competition had been so ready and willing to move.

One by one the other rangers began to follow, although only a few of them actually had to reveal their identities stating their names and colors, and even former colors. They figured that they might as well join in with everyone else if anything.

* * *

Adam was the last one to remove his helmet.

It wasn't because he didn't want to reveal his identity to his parents; it was more because he wasn't sure how they were going to react.

Even though, everyone else had already revealed their identities, that everyone should have made the connect that if they all were friends outside of being Rangers, then chances were that the black Ranger was someone they knew as well...Adam's parents seemed to be pretty doubtful.

After all, for what they knew, he was dead.

He knew his mother was going to end up bursting into tears; it was very obvious that with all that she had been through in the last few days she was on the verge of a break-down and one more shock might just send her over the edge.

She worried a lot whenever he got hurt, and whenever she worried she would try to find some sort of comfort in the smell or taste of peppermint. Adam wondered just how badly the house was going to smell of peppermint once his mother found out that he was putting himself in to danger every day of his life battling monsters.

His father on the other hand, might take it pretty well. He knew that Adam could take care of himself, and there were just some things that he had to do.

As he removed the black helmet, Adam braced himself in preparation for his mother's outburst of tears.

Mrs. Park's heart almost stopped as the light from Command Center fell upon her son's face.

_It...It couldn't be!_

This had to be a trick of the mind she thought as tears began to form up in her eyes. There was no way that the person that she saw standing here could be real.

"A-Adam?" She choked out as her hand gently touched the arm of the black ranger suited person standing in front of her.

She was surprised that her hand didn't go right through him, at her touch.

He was real. But that was impossible!

With out much of an additional word, or a response from Adam, Mrs. Park threw her arms around her son, and began sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder.

It is him! She thought joyfully through her tears. Her son was alright, he was alive, and that snake-lady had been lying after all!

"....I-I thought I wasn't going to see you again!" she choked out through her sobs as she looked up at her son's warm smile.

Adam gave a smile as he looked down at his mother and then glanced towards his father. "I was almost afraid of the same thing for a while there."

His father was smiling at him, almost as if completely relieved that he and his wife had gotten their son back.

Adam knew he had a lot of explaining and apologizing to do to his parents to make up for all that he had put them through in the last few days.

"I'm grounded, right?" He asked his dad with a slight smile.

Mr. Park crossed his arms as he approached his son. "You scared your mother and me half to death disappearing like that! You're darn right you're grounded!" He stated with a slight laugh.

"But...seeing how you _are _one of the people keeping Angel Grove safe, and you'd probably just sneak out again to go and save the world. I'll let you go by this time. Next time, just tell us that you'll be leaving okay?" Mr. Park added with a laugh as he patted his son on the back.

* * *

"We're receiving an incoming message from the forgotten demension.."Alpha announced as he brought the transmission up on the viewing globe.

Billy gave a smile as he saw Silver and Roan's faces appear on the Viewing globe.

"Is this thing on?"Silver asked scratching her head.

"Of course it's on...see? That right there says it's on..." Roan replied.

"Oh! Right? Billy can you see us?"

Billy smiled and signaled to the two pirates that he could see and hear them loud and clear.

"Good! Well, I know that we didn't get to say good bye eariler, you all being in rush and all, but I guess now is a good a time as any." Silver stated with a smile on her face.

"I should really be thanking you guys for your help. If it weren't for you guys, we'd proably still be there!"

Silver ran her fingers through her short hair, blushing.

"Well, Roan and I just wanted to say that it was an honor getting to work with you all."

"Too bad you guys didn't stay, We were just about to ask you to become crewmates on the ship, with the way that you guys fought, it would have been nice to have you guys onboard." Roan stated.

"What Roan means to say means is ya'll would have made great pirates, and if you're ever in the demension again, feel free to contact us, so that we can meet up again. Maybe we'll show you around the mainland some time. You guys would love it!" Sliver said cheerfully looking towards Roan, and then towards the other Rangers.

"I know you all are going to be busy protecting your demension, as will we with our demension, but If anything becomes too difficult for you guys to handle on your own, just call us up and the whole crew will be out there in a heart-beat to help you out." Roan continued giving his wife a breif smile.

Silver nodded in agreement.

Billy looked towards the other rangers and gave a smile, telling the two pirates that they would be the first people they would call if the need would arise, and if they would return the favor and come to their aid if the both of them ever needed their help.

The viewing globe flicked off after Billy and the other Rangers exchanged a word of goodbye with the two pirates.

* * *

As everyone began to morph back to their original outfits, returning the borrowed power to Alone. The tenseness of the whole area seemed to completely die away. Everyone was in a better mood, and the room was filled with an excited chatter as the Rangers began to talk to their parents about their recent experience as Rangers, and the parents began to ask for their child questions about what it was like to be Rangers, and what they had thought about it.

There was just one problem though, and even though the room was crowded, it wasn't an easy sight to miss.

One ranger was missing.

Mrs. Desantos started getting a bad feeling in her gut as she searched the room for missing Red Ranger. It was safe to assume from the story that Aisha and Adam had told about how they had become Power Rangers, that Rocky was the Red Ranger.

However, he seemed to be suspiciously absent from the room, and had not even joined in the fight against the Shadow Chameleon.

A deathly silence fell over the group as they all took note that Mrs. Desantos was beginning to get the hint that something was wrong at this point in time.

"...Where is Rocky?"

* * *

(_Well, that chapter is finally done. Sorry that it was so long and that I took so long getting it posted up. It may be awhile before I am able to post another chapter up. Sorry that it was kind of boring...I wasn't sure where to stop the chapter, or exactly what I wanted to do. Well, I hope that you enjoyed it! Until next time!)_


	13. Discussion

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to power rangers.

Author's note: sorry about the delay between chapters, Writer's block and school you know.

* * *

**Chapter 13: A Discussion**

The Rangers wished that Mrs. Desantos hadn't asked that question. The cheery mood that had been around the room had put the Red Ranger from all their minds, and now he came crashing right back into their memory, creating another awkward silence.

After several minutes of silence from everyone, as Mrs. Desantos began to demand to know where her son was, they finally started to explain all what had happened, as they led Rocky's parents to the infirmary to see their son.

"But...Rangers!!", "Wait...there's something I--" "Rangers!" Alpha would state as he followed the Rangers towards the room.

By the end of the story, both of Rocky's parents were completely silent. It was obvious that the news of their son's condition was a little much for them to bear, and they were trying their best to let the idea sink in.

As the doors to the room slid open, all of the Rangers became silent.

Their breaths were caught in their throat as theirs eyes fell on the completely trashed room.

"What in the hell happened here?" Tommy asked as he stepped into the room.

"Well, we're not sure. While you all were out, We got a distress signal coming from this room, and by the time I got here the it was in a mess and Rocky was pretty much...as you would say it...'freaking out'." Alpha explained as he followed the Rangers into the room.

Aisha narrowed her eyebrows as she paced around the room looking at the damage that had been done.

She was curious about what had happened.

Someone had to have broken into this room, and trashed it. But why?

Rocky was really the only thing of importance in this room that could be targeted with a reason.

But why would someone break into here and destroy almost everything, minus a few monitors and equipment, and leave Rocky completely unharmed.

* * *

Alone knelt down looking at some of the debris that was beside the Red Ranger's bed, for a few seconds, before spotting something out of the corner of his eye and getting up to investigate it.

"Well, aside from the restraints, it looks like Rocky is unharmed." Billy stated as he looked up from one of the computers that had not been destroyed.

"I don't get it, from the looks of this destruction, there was a struggle, and it lasted for a good few minutes....why didn't the alarms go off as soon as this struggle started?" Tanya asked pacing the room, partially lost in though

The question stumped the Rangers. Usually the alarms were good at alerting them of any intruders who may have somehow gotten past the tight security of the Command Center.

Why had it failed this time?

Who had managed to bypass being detected by the alarms even for more than a minute?

"It looks like our problems are worse than I thought..."

All eyes turned towards Alone as they saw him stand up from the edge of the room, examining the object that he had found here.

Clutched in his hands was a jagged-edged knife.

"So, Beelzalea _was_ here?" Zack asked turning towards Alone.

Alone examined the blade in his hands, his eyes darting to Rocky every once in awhile as he sat there in silence, trying to figure out how exactly to explain this.

How could he just tell them the truth, tell them everything he knew.

But that would only create more questions.

Alone nodded, "Yes, Beelzalea was here."

"But, why? How?!" Tommy asked approaching Alone.

His frustration was starting to grow. It seemed like Alone was the only person around here who seemed to know what was going on.

The man had said he was there to help them, yet he insisted on being silent and keeping secrets from them.

Tommy was starting to wonder if Ninjor really did send Alone to help them. As far as he knew, if this guy was really their friend and there to help them he wouldn't be keeping secrets.

"Beelzalea must have cast a spell that disrupted the sensors inside of the Command Center, and I think the reason why she was here is a little obvious; she wasn't too satisfied with the Red Ranger's current condition, and felt that it was necessary to eliminate all chances that he had of recovery."

Okay, Tommy thought, that sounds like a plausible explanation. Beelzalea did seem like the person who would be able to break into a place, and try to kill someone who was already down.

Just make sure the job got done.

Since she was so unsuccessful in this attempt, Tommy could only guess that she would probably be back sometime soon.

"Then how come Rocky isn't dead?" Jason asked, looking over towards his unconscious friend.

Beelzalea seemed fairly capable of killing, so why hadn't she?

"Rocky fought back." Adam suggested before Alone could speak up.

All eyes turned towards the Black Ranger at this point, what did he mean that Rocky fought back?

_Hello?! Earth to Adam! _Kimberly thought, _Rocky is in a coma, If he can't even open his eyes, How in the hell did he manage to fight back?_

Sensing that some of his friends were having a hard time believing what he was saying, Adam continued on to explain what he meant.

"I don't know how, but I know that Rocky is still trying to help us, at least his spirit is anyways."

There was still a silence in the room, as if a lot of the rangers were still skeptical of what Adam was even suggesting.

Aisha believed Adam though, even if she was the only one; she believed him.

"It's got to be true. When we picked up that signal that led us towards our parents, it was Rocky's signal." She added in, trying to help Adam convince everyone that Rocky's spirit was hanging around.

"The MPVGs were messing up a lot while we were there, it could have been a mistake in an energy reading." Billy offered as he crossed his arms and looked towards the two Rangers.

It wasn't that any of the Rangers didn't want to believe Adam and Aisha that Rocky's spirit was still lingering around: It was just that, well, they had never witnessed anything that would provide evidence towards this.

"But, I saw Rocky's signal. The screen came on, and I could see through Rocky's eyes...he could see us. I felt his presence right before the device showed us the map." Aisha argued.

"But, Aisha..."

* * *

Mrs. Desantos was sitting in a chair next to her son's beside while the argument was going on.

The Power sword was laid out across her lap as she sat there.

With a frown, she brushed away a couple of strands of her son's hair from his face, her hand lingering on his forehead for a few seconds afterward.

She believed the both of them.

Even if it hadn't been for the incident that had landed her with the power-sword, she still would have believed it.

Rocky had always been pretty stubborn. If someone had told him that he couldn't do something--and that is to say that he wasn't able to do this, not because he had been forbidden to do something--Rocky would always try his hardest to prove them wrong, showing that he was capable of what had been deemed impossible of him to accomplish.

If all logic said that Rocky's spirit couldn't be lingering around and helping out his friends, and fighting against evil witches that were trying to kill him, then he would have tried to prove that logic wrong by doing all what it had said he couldn't do.

* * *

"In a way, both sides of this argument are correct, and at the same time incorrect." Alone interrupted after a few minutes.

"What do you mean?" Tanya asked raising an eyebrow.

"What helped you through in the Forgotten Dimension were remnants of the Red Ranger's power that had been dispersed in the final explosion that had occurred when Rocky had faced Sleep-walker, and were lingering around you all. However, this does not take into account why the Red Ranger's mother was able to summon the Power-Sword, nor does this take into account how it was possible for the MPVG to pick up a visual. To that, the only explanation is that it was Rocky's spirit sensing that his friends and family needed help."

Alone turned and took a few paces away from the rangers before speaking up again.

"The same situation is what occurred here. It was Rocky who fought against Beelzalea, but at the same time it was not him at all."

The Rangers didn't understand. It sounded more to them like Alone was simply being indecisive on what he believed.

Sensing that the others were in confusion, Alone continued on.

"As you know there are 12 parts of the Great Power of the Ninjetti. Each represented by an animal. Each animal spirit is capable of taking on a visible image in this world." He began.

Tommy nodded; he understood what Alone was trying to say.

"Like when we saw that 'ghost' of Adam's Ranger Power that told us that Adam had been chosen to go out into the desert looking for Kylie."

"..And like Ceres was?" Kylie added curiously.

With a nod Alone responded, "Exactly. Usually if there is a human who is in possession of the power-coin that contains that animal spirit's piece of the power, the Spirit's visible form will be of an almost exact resemblance of the person who holds that Power. If no power has been claimed before this point, usually it'll take a form that resembles the animal that it is represented by."

After taking a few steps, and staring off into the distance with a temporary pensive look on his face, Alone decided to continue on.

"The Ape Spirit appeared and was what fought Beelzalea, I'm sure of it. However...."

Alone's voice trailed off as he took a few more steps, and then looked towards the Red Ranger. It was obvious that there was something troubling him about the whole situation.

The Rangers weren't sure if Alone was more troubled by the fact that the Ape Spirit had fought against Beelzalea, or the fact that the battle had even happened in the first place, or if it was an entirely different matter that was bothering him. All they knew was that something was troubling him, and they'd probably never find out what.

"....It _shouldn't_ have appeared."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Mrs. Cranston asked curiously to the red-haired man who stood before them.

Alone bit his lip for a moment before deciding to continue on.

"The spirits can only be summoned into visible form under two circumstances...the first being under a unanimous decision by the other spirits to deliver a message, and the other being during an attack. Rocky would have had to have some degree of consciousness to even have summoned the Ape Spirit into a visible form for even a second."

Turning towards the Rangers he crossed his arms. "On top of this, the Red Ranger would have to have some knowledge upon how to utilize his part of the Ninjetti power to bring the Ape spirit into a physical form."

_Unless, we are saying that the Ape spirit went temporarily rouge, making an attempt to act independent of the human it's power is bonded to regardless of the circumstances, _Alone thought as he gave a brief glance towards the Red Ranger, before pushing a lock of his red hair behind his ear.

_ This would explain the sudden surge of energy that the Red Ranger was experiencing._

_ But is it possible?_

Usually the Great Power of the Ninjetti, and all related Ranger powers, were well behaved powers that didn't just decide to act independently of the human they were bonded with. Especially not when that person was in such a fragile state that causing a surge in power might kill them to begin with.

"Well, it looks to me like even Alone is puzzled by this; I guess for now we'd better just add this into the 'unsolved and puzzling-cases' files." Zack stated with a slight yawn as he crossed his arms. To him there was no use in trying to figure out what was going on with this whole situation when everything that you ended up trying to figure out the answers for just led to more questions.

The most that they knew for sure was that Beelzalea had broken in here and tried to kill Rocky and was unsuccessful.

Why had she done this?

How had Rocky managed to fight back?

Those would just be questions that would have to be left unanswered, or they would have to find out later in time.

Right now, what everyone needed was some rest, it was getting pretty late and after all the excitement of the last few hours, Zack was sure that everyone was pretty drained.

* * *

As everyone started to head back to the main part of the Command Center, Adam turned towards Rocky's parents.

Both of them were sitting by their son's bedside, just staring at their son wordlessly. It was obvious that the both of them were trying not to just break down right there.

He could only imagine how they both felt about this.

Adam knew he felt pretty upset, and slightly bitter about the fact that his friend was in this condition, he could only imagine how upset and bitter both of Rocky's parents were feeling right now.

It was their son who was laying there. Of all the people in the world that could have been in this condition; of all the people in the world who could have been the Red Ranger....It was their son.

Of all the people that Beelzalea could have targeted, it was Rocky.

Adam clenched his fist at his side as he looked towards the ceiling of the room, giving a silent threat to Beelzalea that if she ever showed her face around them at all, he'd make her pay for what she had put Rocky's parents through.

Alpha returned into the room a few seconds later, approaching Rocky's parents.

"Everyone is has decided to leave to get some rest, it would probably be best if the both of you did as well." Alpha stated.

Rocky's mother brushed a couple of tears away from her eyes as she gave a look of protest towards the robot. She didn't want to leave her son's side, what if something happened to him while she was gone? What if he woke up? What if he died? It wouldn't be like they would be able to come back to the command center so easily to just see Rocky. No. she simply wasn't going to leave her son's side.

Alpha was trying his best to calm Mrs. Desantos down, and convince her that it would be best if she left, but nothing that he seemed to be doing was working.

Adam bit his lip for a second before approaching the group, and reaching towards Rocky's right wrist and gently and wordlessly unhooking the communicator from his friend's wrist, and holding it out to Rocky's parents.

It wasn't like Rocky was going to have any use for the communicator right now.

"If anything happens to Rocky, Zordon, Alpha, or one of us will contact you through this communicator." He stated kindly as he placed the communicator into Mrs. Desantos's hands.

Mrs. Desantos still wasn't completely satisfied with this method of keeping her updated on her son's condition, but she was just too tired to protest anymore.

"Thank you, Adam." Mr. Desantos stated as he helped his wife get to her feet, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and leading her towards the door.

As the two of them left, Adam lingered around the Infirmary.

Slowly he approached his friend

Even though it had been a while since his friend had been in condition, Adam just couldn't get used to seeing his friend like this and he doubted that he ever would.

It was one thing to see Rocky just sleeping; at least in that situation Adam knew that eventually Rocky would wake up.

It was another thing to see Rocky as he was now, not knowing when he was going to come around.

Exhaling a loud sigh, Adam approached Rocky's beside.

"I guess Zordon wasn't kidding when he said that Beelzalea was a person to worry about." He stated with a laugh.

He knew that he wasn't expecting any reply from Rocky, but he paused anyhow.

"Then again I guess that when it comes to our enemies, Zordon isn't really one to make jokes."

Again no expected reply.

"It doesn't surprise me how Beelzalea got into this place. I mean if she has teamed up with Ivan Ooze, and if her powers are as great as Zordon is saying, then I don't doubt that she could sneak past the security in this place."

"You would think after what she did to you, she would just be satisfied with that, and just leave you alone."

Adam gave a brief laugh as he examined some of the fried, exposed wires of some of the nearby damaged equipment.

"She sure is persistent when it comes to trying to kill you though."

He couldn't help but laughing for awhile, as he thought. Beelzalea's persistence in killing Rocky did almost make him wonder about why exactly she felt the need to go after his friend like that.

Shrugging, he turned away. _Whatever, it doesn't matter why she was trying to kill him, all that matters is the fact that she tried and probably won't stop trying until he's dead._

Adam clenched his fist as he turned towards Rocky. He didn't understand it, but suddenly he was filled with a lot of rage towards Beelzalea. He wanted to see her receive a like punishment, no...He wanted to see her receive a _worse _punishment, compared to what she had done to Rocky.

But most of all, _he _wanted to be the one to carry out that punishment.

Adam loosened his clenched fist as this thought came to mind.

What was he thinking?

When had he become this violent?

_Her influence is already beginning to change things..._Adam could hear Shadow Chameleon's words echoing in his head.

"But who is this person that the Shadow Chameleon was talking about?" He asked himself aloud.

If it wasn't Beelzalea, and it wasn't Minerva...then that meant that they had an entirely different opponent they might have to battle in the future.

Adam let out a sigh, _Great, just what we need, more enemies. You'd think the number that we have already is enough, but no...These guys just decide to show up by the numbers to cause even more trouble for us. _

"Oh well, I guess we'll just have to deal with whoever else shows up, whenever they show up. It's not like Alone's going to tell us about whoever this person, or thing, is in enough time anyhow."

Giving a brief laugh Adam crossed his arms and turned toward Rocky.

"Man, I wish you could meet Alone, he's a character alright. I mean really what kind of guy just shows up out of nowhere, has these weird powers that he claims are related to the Ninjetti Powers, claims to be working for Ninjor and that he's here to help, and yet _still_ refuses to tell us everything he knows?"

There was a long silence between Adam and Rocky, as Adam looked around the room trying to figure out what to say next.

"Rocky, I---"

"Hey, Adam, we're all taking off for the night. You coming?" Tanya asked as the doors to the infirmary slid open.

The sound of the doors sliding open startled Adam briefly, causing him to jump before turning towards Tanya.

He gave her a smile as he nodded, telling her that he was going to be right there in a second.

"Alright, take your time, but don't take too long. We've all got to get some rest tonight. Who knows what Beelzalea's got planned for tomorrow morning."

With that Tanya left the room.

Adam wasn't too far behind her.

As he got to the door of the infirmary, he looked over his shoulder towards Rocky giving a sigh. "---I promise Beelzalea will get what she deserves."

_I'll make sure of it._

_I promise._

* * *

"Under most circumstances, I would not allow this bending of the rules, but I feel that because of the recent circumstances I'll once more have to make an exception about the rule of revealing your identities." Zordon said, once all of the Rangers had assembled with the adults, in the main part of the command center.

As he explained it, since half of the team's parents already knew of their child's secret identity it would only be fitting that the others got the chance to explain to their parents as well.

It seemed too many of the Rangers that Zordon was allowing this rule to be bent for this circumstance, out of the fear that things might escalate further in this battle against Rita and Zedd, which may or may not result in one or all of them actually dying.

Agreeing that this would be this best thing to do, the rangers and their parents teleported out of the command center, leaving it empty all except Alone, Zordon, and Alpha.

_ "_It is a good thing you are who you are Zordon." Alone stated after a few seconds of silence.

Alpha tilted his head, as if to give Alone a confused look.

What did Alone mean by this?

"The Higher ups, and all of the authorities that enforce the rules of the Ranger Power would be rather angered if it had been anybody else bending their rules so easily." Alone continued. "At least I know they would be, if it had been me allowing your protectors to bend the rules."

Zordon gave Alone a stern look as he looked down on the red haired man.

Alone ignored the stern look however and continued pacing the room, his arms crossed across his chest as he lost himself in thought.

"They haven't come after me yet, and I know that they are bound to be upset with my actions."

Stopping for a second, Alone brought his hand to rest on his chin, looking thoughtful as if he were gazing at something that was beyond the walls of the Command Center.

"I'm sure they're in too much of a frenzy to keep an eye on me, now that the Ancient Guardians seem to have come out of their hiding after all these years."

_Still on the side of evil, and using their old tactics too_, Alone thought as he turned away from looking towards the wall.

Giving a small smile to himself Alone continued to pace the room. _Undoubtedly she sent them to try to bring all the Rangers to her side, With the only ranger team in history that hasn't been completely defeated under her control, she could add their strength to her own, and be unstoppable. _

_ She's counting on them to only have power because of their Ranger Power. She's relying on the fact that they are human, and obviously assumes that they will be easily corrupted to demonstrate characteristics opposite of the good ones they possess. I wonder how long it will be before she learns that the simple efforts that have caused all of the previous Ranger teams in the past to fail are not going to be enough when it comes to these Rangers. _

* * *

The sigh of relief could probably be heard all throughout Angel Grove that night as each of the Rangers and their parents returned home.

It had not hit any of them until just that minute exactly how long and stressful things had been for awhile, until they had stepped foot into their homes.

For many of them, when they stepped into their home, they had a repeat of the events that had occurred earlier. Seeing their parents shocked faces, expecting them to be angry or upset, only to see their parent's faces turn to prideful looks, as each promised that they would never tell another living soul their child's secret identity.

Many of the rangers who had gone out on today's mission breathed a sigh of relaxation as they entered their homes.

As Adam walked into the living room, he inhaled the peppermint scented air deeply.

It was a rather comforting scent.

Just the smell alone made him realize that he had not been here for several days, and as he sat down on the couch in the living room, while his mother went to go and clean up the broken coffee cup, he realized exactly how long it had been since he had gotten to relax like this.

He was sure that he was going to sleep better tonight than he had in the last few nights.

After all, tonight, he wouldn't be out in the middle of the desert, worrying about an attack, and he wouldn't be over at Aisha's house, worrying about how his parents were doing.

Everything was calm for tonight.

* * *

"I don't see how Beelzalea has been of any help for us....." Zedd stated as he sat on the cold metal and stone throne that usually sat at the center of the chamber.

Rita crossed her arms and nodded as she turned towards Finster. "Her plans have been no better than what we have been doing on our own."

Finster bowed respectfully to his masters, "Even the best of plans can fail at the hands of the Rangers, my lady. I know that Beelzalea will come up with a better plan that even the rangers cannot escape, if she was just given a little more time."

Seeing his Queen's face beginning to turn red in anger, Finster became quick to realize that asking her to give Beelzalea more time to come up with a plan was not the appropriate thing to do at that moment.

"More time? We've given her well over ten Earth days to defeat the Rangers, and all of her plans have fallen when put up to the challenge of the rangers. "Zedd stated looking towards Finster, the visor that was his eyes were beginning to glow red in anger.

"Yeah. Can't she come up with a good idea any faster?!"

Minerva smirked and picked up her green fan. "Now, Now, Rita darling. Remember, Patience is a key to conquering any planet."

A grimace came across Rita's face as her mother said this. Her mother was right, she should be patrician, about all this, but all this waiting and failed attempts at taking the Rangers down was getting boring to her.

"Keeping the Rangers on their toes and wearing them down may be all a part of Beelzalea's plan. Push them to their human limits, and then strike." Minerva stated

_Using an Ancient Guardian like Shadow Chameleon is hardly trying to wear them down, and is more like teasing them. _Zedd thought as he listened to Minerva.

"Perhaps, you ought to be running along Finster. I'm sure there are some matters that must be attended to in your workshop." Minerva suggested after a few seconds as she unfolded the green fan she held.

Bowing, Finster left the room.

As he wondered the hallway, he began to think.

He had known Beelzalea for many years, but not once had she ever mentioned that she had connections to, _Rangers_, even if they had been exiled and sealed away because they turned towards the side of evil.

Somewhere along the way of her training she failed to mention that she even knew how to break the seal that had been created to lock these evil "rangers".

As he walked down the hallway, he decided instead to pass by his workshop and head down to the servant's quarters to check up on Beelzalea.

She had left the main chamber a while ago, Finster assumed that she had gone back to her room to get some rest; she had not been looking well.

When he passed by his workshop, he found that Beelzalea was there.

She was reading a book, one that Finster recognized as a book that had been on the shelf here, which contained many recipes for potions of all sorts.

As he entered the room, his eyes fell on the ingredients to potions that were strewn all over the table, some of the contents of the bottles that were being held over fire were emitting colorful smoke that rolled down the sides of the bottles, and spilled out onto the table.

Immediately his nose recognized the scents of all of these ingredients. If he wasn't mistaken, Beelzalea was in the process of creating a love-potion.

Since Beelzalea was so focused on the book, she didn't notice that Finster had even walked into the room at all.

Through the smoke, Finster noticed that Beelzalea's face was partially hidden in unnatural dark shadows, and her pale lips moved very slightly as she read the words on the page under her breath.

The last time that he had seen her so focused on a book, Finster remembered, she had been secretly speaking to the Red Ranger behind Minerva, Rita, and Zedd's backs.

As he watched her he headed towards the bookshelf, staying out of Beelzalea's sight.

He wondered what was going on in her head.

With all the things that had been going on, and all the things that Beelzalea was doing now, just what was passing through the thoughts of the younger Magi?

On top of that, he wanted to know what other secrets she was hiding from all of them.

//_Look at him there, he has no idea that we have any clue about what he has been doing.//_

Beelzalea's eyes didn't even leave the page that she was reading as her hand reached for one of the smoking bottles that sat near her.

//_The fool.// _

_ Should he be eliminated?_

_ // No. not now...we'll let him live a little longer. He isn't much of a threat to either of us right now, he's completely clueless as to what is going on.//_

_ You are right..._

Beelzalea looked towards the potion that was brewing nearby her.

What was she thinking? She knew as well as anyone would that once Finster even got the vaguest idea of what was going on, she would have to kill him.

Could she really kill her own teacher like that? Could she kill someone who has taken her in and taken care of her, and even had managed to help her obtain her job as her Queen's Magi?

//_You will kill Finster if I have anything to say about it.//_

_ But....My mistress, Finster is my friend._

_ //Friend? Beelzalea, where have you learned such silly ideas?//_

_ I'm sorry my mistress...I guess that I have become accustom to observing...._

_ //Friendship is easily corrupted, and can only lead to hesitation to attack. You cannot afford to waste your time with such dangerous ideas//_

_ Yes my mistress, I understand._

Beelzalea gave a brief sigh as she poured the finished love potion into a flask to carry around with her. She gave no signal to Finster that she had even taken notice that he was there as she shut the book, and cleaned up the ingredients before leaving the room.

Her plan was to put this love potion in the drinks of her Mistress Rita, and Ivan Ooze and make absolutely sure that they would fall in love with one another.

Once this was done, Rita would want nothing to do with Zedd, and banish him from the castle, or even to the dungeons to be left to rot.

Beelzalea smiled to herself as she passed by the throne room.

_Enjoy your last night here in this castle Zedd._

"We're not sneaking out of the palace without permission again are we Beelzalea?"

Beelzalea stopped and turned towards Minerva as soon as her Queen asked this question. She gave Minerva a smile and bowed politely.

"Of course not my Queen! In fact, I was searching for you to ask for permission to go down to Earth to test out this new potion that I have brewed on a human. If it is effective, it may be of some use to us in future plans against the Rangers."

Minerva smile briefly, and then looked over her shoulder towards the throne room.

If Beelzalea leaving the Palace would to test a potion would be of any help to Rita, then she should let her go ahead and do it.

"Well, we certainly wouldn't want any faulty potions now would we?"

Beelzalea shook her head briefly in response to Minerva's question.

"As long as you make sure to be invisible, or at least go out in a disguise, I suppose it is okay."

A smile spread across Beelzalea's pale lips as she gave a quick bow to Minerva, before turning and going back down the hallway towards the servant's quarters to change.

Minerva watched as Beelzalea disappeared down the hallway, a small smirk was set on her lips.

"Perhaps I should leave the castle for a while myself. It's been awhile since I've seen the Silver Ranger I'm sure he is missing me by now..."

With a brief laugh, Minerva continued down the hallway.

* * *

Zack shivered as he sat outside at a small outdoor cafe at 8:30 that night.

He didn't know what it was, that caused him to shiver, it wasn't cold out here tonight, and in fact it was rather comfortable, as far as the weather went.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Alone was sitting across the table from him, staring at him with those light blue eyes.

Alone had contacted him earlier, saying that he wanted to talk to him.

Zack had suggested that they meet here.

He wasn't sure why Alone, would actually be wanting to talk to him, of all people. Actually, he wasn't sure why Alone wanted to talk at all. What was so important that he had to meet with him about?

Alone hadn't said anything for the last few minutes anyhow, so Zack was starting to figure that it was either really important or that he should at least initiate the conversation.

"So, Alone...um, you changed your clothes...."

Zack wanted to hit himself in the head for that one.

While it was true that for at least now, Alone had ditched the trench-coat and the military organization uniform, and the gloves, for a plain black tank top under a black sleeveless, button-up vest, and a pair of blue-jeans.

But this observation wasn't how Zack wanted this conversation to start.

"Yes. I decided that if I am going to be here on Earth, I might as well try to blend in with the human crowd. "

"Okay, sure, makes sense."

Alone fell into silence for a few seconds, before Zack finally spoke up.

"Look, Alone, why _are _we here? I mean I know that we're here for more than a cup of coffee at 8:30 at night..."

Looking down at the table, Alone took a deep breath, and then looked towards Zack once more, his blue eyes becoming serious.

"You are right Mr. Taylor. We are here for more than a cup of coffee." Alone began.

There was a brief pause, as Alone tried to figure out how to begin to say what he wanted to say.

"I want to apologize for my behavior earlier. I should not have been giving commands, nor should I have acted so harshly."

Zack shrugged and waved it off casually. "Don't worry about it."

Alone frowned and then looked off to his side.

"I have decided to entrust you with some information, Mr. Taylor."

"Why me? I mean why not get everyone together and tell them?"

"You are the easiest to speak to. I know that you would willingly lend a nonjudgmental ear...not that I am saying that any of the others are judgmental, and you will question me in a friendly manner as to try to make sure that I am comfortable speaking. Not that that I am saying that any of your comrades make me feel that way, but I barely know them well enough to know how they would react to the information. Even if you do not understand me, I know you will believe me even if just slightly, and all that I say will remain confidential between the two of us, unless I say otherwise."

Zack nodded. Okay, so Alone wanted to talk to him, because he felt comfortable talking to him.

"What I wanted to talk to you about involves of course, Shadow-Chameleon, and---" Alone began.

"Hello there, Sorry for the wait. I believe these are yours..." A waitress with dark hair interrupted.

_Damn, so close to actually getting some real information from Alone! _Zack thought with a mental frown.

".....We haven't ordered yet..." Zack stated as he looked at the two coffees that had been placed on the table.

"These are on the house. You see, because it took us so long to get around to your order, as an apology for the delay, I decided to cover the cost of the coffee on my own." The waitress explained as a smile appeared on her face.

Zack returned the smile.

Well that was nice of the waitress to do something like that for the two of them.

From the corner of his eye, he could see that Alone was looking up at the dark haired waitress, the serious look still upon his face.

"Well, can I take your order, or is Coffee the only thing that you were coming here for?"

"The coffee is just fine." Zack stated as he looked up at the waitress.

"And what about for you sir?" The waitress asked as she wrote down the order and turned towards Alone.

"Nothing for me. Thank you...." Alone stated, while never taking his eyes off the waitress.

The waitress gave a small smile and turned away from the two of them.

Before Zack could ask Alone to continue on with what he was saying, he noticed that Alone had already gotten up and was following the waitress.

"Excuse me...Miss?" Alone asked as he tapped the waitress's shoulder, once he had caught up with her halfway across the cafe.

The waitress turned towards him still smiling. "Yes, can I help you?"

Alone pushed a strand of hair away from his face, "It-it's nothing. I'm sorry to have bothered you."

The waitress gave a brief smile and walked away.

Alone returned to the table, looking a bit worried.

"You okay? What was all that just now?"

"It's nothing." Alone stated as he stared down into the coffee.

_But if it was the power I sensed, then that would mean....no....they've all died. That power I sensed had to have been my own imagination._

Zack sat back. There Alone went again. Something was bothering him, and he wasn't talking about it.

"..Anyhow, what were you going to tell me?"

"I was going to speak about Shadow Chameleon."

"And?"

Alone looked over at the other people who were happily chatting with one another at the other tables.

"We all have something in common with Shadow Chameleon...."

Zack raised an eyebrow. He wasn't sure exactly how much he and Alone had in common with a monster like Shadow Chameleon.

"Shadow Chameleon, much like you and myself, was a 'Ranger',"

Alone fell back into silence for several minutes after speaking, letting this information sink into Zack's brain.

Zack could hardly believe it. So, that hideous monster that they had fought, had actually been a Ranger?

* * *

Minerva smiled as she looked across the Cafe in her more-human like form.

Right now she could see the Sliver Ranger and his friend talking with a waitress with dark hair.

She hadn't been planning on the Sliver Ranger being at this cafe, especially not with that other man who had begun helping out the rangers.

After a few minutes, Minerva saw the dark haired waitress returning to the tables nearby her with a few of the customer's orders.

As the waitress passed by her, Minerva's lips curved into a smile as the waitress placed the cup of coffee that she had ordered on the table.

"So, where's the real one?" Minerva asked the waitress as she wrapped her hands around the coffee cup.

"Beside the dumpster in the back alleyway sleeping. Used some of the leftover potion I gave to the Tengu to knock the Frog out a while back, she should be out long enough for me to test this potion and make a quick escape. My Queen." Beelzalea muttered to Minerva calmly, her voice remaining similar to the actual voice of the waitress.

"What about the Silver Ranger over there...and his friend?" Minerva asked glancing towards the two men across the cafe.

Beelzalea's head turned towards them for a brief moment.

"For now they don't suspect a thing. The Owl is human, and therefore won't notice anything going wrong with the customers until it is already too late. The Owl's friend may be a problem. For now, I'm keeping my eyes close on him." She stated in a gentle and serious voice.

Minerva brought the coffee to her lips and drank for a second, before putting the cup down and giving a smile up to Beelzalea.

"Have you already given out a bit of this potion?"

Beelzalea didn't even nod as she responded. "Yes I have. 12 cups of coffee in this Cafe have been given out that contain the potion that I have created. The symptoms should appear within two or three minutes of drinking the coffee."

Looking around at the people that were sitting around the Cafe, Minerva frowned.

"Beelzalea?"

"Yes my Queen?"

"What type of potion _did_ you make anyway?"

* * *

"What do you mean, Shadow Chameleon was a Ranger?"

"I mean, what I say.....he was a ranger. Much like you and myself. More like myself really." Alone stated

"So--wait, he was human...or at least kinda of human?"

Alone looked over after bringing the coffee cup to his lips, but after the smell of the liquid reached his nose, he decided against it and set the cup gently back down on the table. .

"You don't have to be human to be a ranger." He stated simply looking over.

Zack nodded. He guessed he understood what Alone was saying. After all, on some planets, Zack imagined that there was more than just a human race.

"Okay, so Shadow Chameleon wasn't human, but still a ranger...but I thought that all Rangers were good, unless under some sort of spell. So why was he attacking us?"

A frown appeared on Alone's face as his eyes darted across the cafe briefly to the waitress from earlier, who was talking to another, older looking, dark haired customer.

"Sometimes a ranger starts off as good...and then eventually everything that happens to them, everything they do, begins to build up mental and physical stress, making their souls vulnerable to chaos...and it takes over, and turns them evil, turns them into monsters, just like that."

"So, Shadow Chameleon was just stressed.....and he attacked us?"

Alone had to force a brief laugh, as he looked towards Zack. So far Zack only understood what he was saying only a little bit. It was a bit complicated to understand.

"Shadow Chameleon belonged to a group calling themselves the 'Ancient Guardians' their power was derived from the spirits ancient mythological beings that were said to protect their planet. There were 12 of them, like there are 12 of you rangers. Each had a different attribute attached to their power, such as Shadow...as well they possessed one of the spirits of the 12 beings. Shadow Chameleon's spirit, happened to be a chameleon-like creature, that as the myth of the planet goes, could imitate its enemy...such as we saw earlier today." Alone continued.

"We're not sure what happened to the whole team...one day, they just turned evil, and all 12 of them started terrorizing their own planet, killing mercilessly. Because of this sudden massacre, many of the other planets began to fear that these rangers would come and attack, and it was decided that the 12 of them should be sealed away...and that was where they had been since." Alone stated as he sat down the cup of coffee.

"Until today that is..." Zack added.

Alone nodded. "Until today."

"Why?"

"Perhaps it has something to do with Beelzalea. I do not know for sure at this point."

Alone suddenly looked at the coffee that Zack was about to take a drink of, and then towards the main building of the cafe.

Standing up, he asked Zack if he could be excused from the conversation for a second. After all, he was sure that Zack needed some time to properly think about and sort out all the information that he had given him.

Zack watched as Alone headed towards the alleyway nearby the Cafe.

* * *

The alleyway was dark, and smelled heavily of rotting garbage, Alone could hear cats and other animals rummaging through the garbage.

As Alone passed by one of the dumpsters, he caught sight of a woman laying there.

He knelt down beside her with his ear close to her mouth and nose to hear if she was still breathing.

"Asleep." Alone muttered under his breath as he stepped away from the lady.

He took note of the small needle puncture that was located on her neck, located as the source from where a few small stream-remnants of liquid lingered.

Alone touched the liquid gently, taking a small sample of it on his fingers, and bringing it to his nose.

He had recognized this girl immediately. She had been the waitress that he had just seen not but a little while ago. It appeared she had been attacked here in this alleyway, and drugged with a sleeping potion.

She was going to be out for a few hours judging from the smell of the potion.

"Don't you know it's not safe to be going down dark alleyways on your own?"

Alone's eyes narrowed at the sound of this voice, as he slowly got to his feet to turn and face the speaker.

"You are Beelzalea, are you not?"

"And what of it if I am? What are you going to do about it? Fight me? You don't stand a chance!"

A smirk spread across Alone's face as he watched the appearance of the waitress that he had saw earlier, change into the appearance of the white-haired magi.

"Am I supposed to take you serious? Other than attacking this human, and your previous failed attempt to attack the Red Ranger, you seem to be nothing more than talk. It is said you have powers as great as the best sorceresses, but from what I can see you haven't really used this power." He stated crossing his arms.

Beelzalea crossed her arms, as she stared at Alone. She had been right, Alone was going to be a problem, and he wasn't scared of her power for some reason.

He definitely wouldn't hesitate to attack her if they were to start a fight right here.

"I wouldn't say that those are the only two I've attacked...I think your forgetting 12 other people and you're forgetting I tried to kill you as well."

Beelzalea's eyes became black as she began speaking to Alone.

Alone nodded. Of course, how could he have forgotten, he had smelt something unusual with the coffee earlier?

"Yes, but using a potion isn't using your power. So I'm still not convinced. Unless I actually get to fight you."

Beelzalea's lips curved into a smile. "You'd rather waste time here fighting with me than trying to save those poor Earthlings. Why I don't even know what the effects of the potion I going to be on a human. It could be lethal!" She said.

She began laughing in a psychotic manner, as she summoned a ball of fire to her hands.

Alone smirked as he fell into an attack position, ready to strike Beelzalea, after the first move of the battle would be made.

"He's going to face me unmorphed? Ha-ha! What a foolish boy he is!" Beelzalea said through her laughter, as the flames she had conjured in her hands danced in the air, their light casting an orange glow around the alleyway.

"Well, alright. If you want to die that badly."

* * *

Zack was still sitting at the table, wondering where Alone had gone off to. He had been gone for several minutes, and Zack was beginning to wonder if he had just decided to leave without any word.

Alone had been in the middle of telling him some information, why would he have just decided that now was a time to leave?

Well, that's a little rude isn't it? Zack thought as he looked over at the cup of coffee that sat on the table across from him.

A loud crash sounded nearby, causing Zack's attention to go to the source of the sound.

Several of the people in the cafe, had suddenly just started staring at one another, as if they had suddenly just become ill or something.

It was starting to freak out their friends and the other customers, because they were trying to figure out what was wrong with them.

As Zack looked across the Cafe, he noticed a rather familiar looking person sitting at one of the tables.

Minerva.

_No doubt she's got something to do with this._

He got up from his seat, and marched across the cafe towards her.

Minerva looked up at the silver ranger, with a smirk as she saw him approaching her.

"Why Mr. Taylor. I'm surprised to see you here!" She said with a false sweetness in her voice.

"Minerva, what have you done?"

Zack motioned towards some of the nearby customers that had suddenly gone into trances.

Minerva raised an eyebrow as if she didn't have any clue of what Zack was talking about, as if she couldn't' believe that the Silver Ranger was accusing her of being responsible for what was happening.

"I'm afraid _I_ had nothing to do with this. If you're looking for someone to blame, you should be looking for Beelzalea. But, I'm afraid you'll just have to wait your turn to take up the issue with her, right now it seems she is currently disposing of that red-haired friend of yours."

Getting to her feet gracefully, Minerva looked down at Zack. "Of Course, if you want someone to fight. I would be more than willing to fight you."

As Minerva began to transform back into her normal semi-human appearance, she sent out a wave of magic that knocked out every one of the people in the cafe.

"If you are going to morph, then I suggest you do it now, unless you don't even want to put up a fight for your life." Minerva said as she pulled the sword she fought with out of thin air.

Zack didn't really feel like fighting right now, what he wanted was to rest. But, it seemed as if Minerva had other plans. He knew that she wouldn't let him go unless he fought with her.

Pulling out his morpher, and giving a sigh, Zack called out, "Silver Ranger Power!"

Once Zack was morphed, he heaved another sigh and gripped the nunchukus in his hands.

Minerva smiled and drew her sword back to attack.

With a battle cry from each, the two rushed at each other.

* * *

Alone ducked out of the way of the fireball that Beelzalea had sent his way, drawing his katana out of thin air, and sending a quick wave of blue energy towards her.

Beelzalea blocked the blue energy from the sword with a glowing white barrier.

With a grunt, Alone rushed at Beelzalea with the katana, ready to strike. His eyes narrowed fiercely as he let out a roar as he swung the sword at her.

Soon, Alone found his weapon interlocked with a Katana similar to his own weapon, only this one being wielded by Beelzalea.

The two fought each other using the katana for quite a while, even though neither one of them really got much of anywhere as far as damaging the other.

Every time that Alone would try to attack, Beelzalea would block or dodge, and every time Beelzalea would attack, Alone would block and dodge.

Several minutes into the battle, Alone finally had an opening to attack.

As he charged at Beelzalea, he prepared to stab her with the Katana, right through the head.

Beelzalea's eyes went wide as she saw the Katana came towards her.

In a quick motion, Alone made the katana disappear from his hands, when the tip of the Katana was only an inch from Beelzalea's face.

He had decided it wasn't worth killing her right then and there, and instead decided to follow through his attack with a punch to the face.

As his bare knuckles came in contact with the side of Beelzalea's face, His eyes went wide as images began to flash through his eyes.

He quickly brought his hand back to his side, staring in horror at Beelzalea.

"What a fool." Beelzalea said as she crossed her arms and looked at Alone.

Alone bowed his head briefly, and bit his lip, looking rather defeated, and remaining silent.

A loud crash was heard from the Cafe.

Beelzalea turned away from Alone.

"Ah, so it sounds like the Owl has been confronting my Queen about the victims. The poor owl, he must have thought My Queen was responsible!" She laughed.

Alone, didn't even respond to Beelzalea, as he continued to stare at the ground, defeated.

"As it would seem the Love potion worked quiet well. Well, if you are not willing to fight me anymore, I suppose that I ought to be going back to the castle. I bid you a farewell." Beelzalea stated as she vanished into thin air, leaving Alone in the alleyway with the unconscious waitress.

Alone looked towards the sky for several moments before heaving a sigh and transforming into his ranger armor.

* * *

Out in the main part of the cafe, Zack had just been sent flying backwards with a swing of Minerva's blade.

As he tried to catch his breath and get to his feet, he saw Minerva coming at him, even though his vision was blurry behind the helmet.

Minerva was laughing gleefully as she stood over the Silver Ranger. She kicked him hard in the chest sending him back to the ground struggling for breath.

Zack let out a groan of pain as he clutched his chest where Minerva's foot had struck him. He knew he'd be feeling that one in the morning.

Minerva stood over Zack, ready to bring the sword down of him.

Just as the sword was about to strike Zack, it suddenly was interfered by the broad side of a katana.

"Need a hand?" Alone asked, stepping into the battle, bringing the katana back to his side.

Zack got to his feet and dusted himself off. "Wouldn't hurt." he stated

"A Shadow Ninjetti Shogun, teaming up with a Ninjetti Power Ranger? Now there is a sight that you don't see every day." Minerva said as she looked towards the two men who faced her with weapons drawn to attack.

Zack looked over to Alone. So, that's what Alone's Ranger Team had been called?

Minerva laughed briefly and shrugged. "Well, anyhow. You don't expect helpless ol' me to fight against two men like yourselves do you? That would be more than just a little unfair. So, I will be seeing you around Silver Ranger."

In an instant, Minerva had disappeared into thin air.

* * *

Zack frowned from behind his helmet as he looked around the cafe, everyone was still unconscious.

"What are we going to do about them?" he asked motioning towards the crowd.

Alone made the katana in his hands vanish. "They'll be okay. They should come around to consciousness soon. Lucky for us, the Love potion that Beelzalea used, while it was strong...it was only given to the people here in a small dose, so the effects should wear off by the time they wake up as well." He said as he started to walk away from the Cafe.

Zack followed Alone, hoping that Alone would add on more about these "Shadow Ninjetti Shoguns" that he belonged to, into part of this conversation.

"Wait, wasn't there something you were going to tell me?" he asked as he powered down, returning to civilian clothing.

Alone powered down as well, as he continued to walk down the street, without saying a word.

"You know, Alone. I think I finally figured out what your problem is." Zack said as he caught up with Alone and fell into step beside him.

Alone raised an eyebrow and looked towards the Silver Ranger, halfway amused that Zack was trying to figure him out.

"You're afraid that if you tell us some information about yourself, or anything that's going on, we'll suddenly see you as the bad guy."

Alone remained silent as he continued to walk.

"We know you are with us, Alone. No matter what you've got to tell us about who you are, you're one of the good guys. If Ninjor trusts you, and from what I hear he is our ally, then there shouldn't be any reason for us not to as well."

"You really trust people, don't you?" Alone asked stopping, looking like he was seriously considering what Zack had just said.

Zack nodded, of course he trusted people, they weren't all evil, and as long as they showed some signs that he could trust them, he would continue to trust them.

"A flaw that will prove to be fatal. Trusting someone only makes it easier for her, the one that Shadow Chameleon called his Queen. Next thing you know you're allies are against you, mercilessly killing everyone you know, and everything you protected is torn to ruin. You become weaker, and as she feeds on the confusion and destruction of the world, as she feeds on the confusion in your soul, taking your power...she becomes stronger. I've seen it more than a million times."

"But, who is _she_?"

Alone's frown deepened as he looked towards the sky.

He wasn't sure how to even begin to explain who this person was. He found that it was very complicated just to come right out and say to Zack what he knew about this person.

Explaining her, meant to explain, in part, an abstract idea. It would be difficult to comprehend, or so he believed.

But he began anyhow.

"Remember that 'shared interest' I told you that the organization I once belonged to was researching?"

Zack nodded, of course, it had only been a little while ago that he had told him, how could he have forgotten? He had remembered that Alone had suddenly gone real quiet after having mentioned it.

"_She is _that very same thing. The dark power that is the sister of all Ranger Power that ever was, is, and will be. Chaos."

* * *

(_I hope this chapter was okay, I know it was kind of short and there wasn't a lot going on, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this chapter, and how I wanted to end this chapter off, and if I wanted to wait until another chapter to reveal certain information or not, but I decided here would be a good spot to leave off on, and continue on in the next chapter.) _


	14. Always a Friend

Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers

**

* * *

Chapter 14: Always a Friend.**

"What?"

"You heard me. Shadow Chameleon's _Queen_ is Chaos."

"Alone, Even if what you are saying is true, we're still dealing with an abstract idea here!"

As he stopped walking, Alone crossed his arms and looked over at Zack. He shook his head. True, they were dealing with an idea that was fairly abstract in its nature, but it was still a part of their enemy.

Zack fell into silence as he stared at Alone, this guy was unbelievable. Was he really expecting him to take him seriously?

How?

"Remember how I said everything regarding Ranger Power worked on the basis of opposing forces in harmony?" Alone asked looking over his shoulder to the Silver Ranger.

Zack nodded.

"Yeah, two halves of the Ninjetti."

Alone gave a brief smile and nod as he brushed some of his red hair out of his eyes.

"All Ranger Power, Past, Present, and Future, works on this basis, on a larger scale. Within the Ranger Power there are the two separate forces such as the 12 animals of the Ninjetti power, opposite forces, working against each other. Together they create the general Ranger Power, the Great Power of the Ninjetti in this case. The larger power itself has an opposing force, its dark side, which keeps it balanced."

Alone crossed his arms. "Ranger Power, it is orderly, pure, and lawful, good in a sense of the word, it would only make sense that its balance would be Chaos."

Zack frowned and shook his head.

A sigh escaped Alone's lips as he started walking down the street again.

"Alone, wait."

Alone continued walking for a few more steps before looking over his shoulder to the Silver Ranger.

"What is this about these Shadow Ninjetti Shoguns that Minerva was talking about? She said you were one."

A small frown appeared on Alone's face as he turned towards the Silver Ranger.

"A group of Rangers I once belonged to. I'm the only one left."

_Or so I had assumed. _Alone thought as he looked down at his bare hand.

"Not that I'm expecting much of an answer...but is there something wrong Alone?"

Alone was silent for a few seconds.

"My hands are cold." He stated simply as he turned away from Zack.

Zack didn't buy this lie for a second.

Personally, Alone was becoming more of a frustration than a help every time he spoke.

"Alone, we still trust you even if you're not telling us what is going on. Don't hesitate to tell us who you are. We trusted you with our identities; I think you should trust us with yours."

The thought echoed around in Alone's head for a few seconds, as he stood there.

"I will consider your offer Mr. Taylor."

With that Alone vanished as he walked down the alleyway, leaving Zack standing there by himself.

"I hope you do."Zack muttered to the empty alleyway that Alone had vanished down.

If Alone was any sort of Ranger, Zack knew, eventually he'd break down and decide to talk about everything.

Of course, not that Zack had a problem listening to Alone; he hoped when that time came, Alone would gather the group together to talk about himself. If Alone had any more information like what had come up tonight, Zack was sure his head would be bound to explode, if he was left to sort out all the information on his own.

With a sigh, Zack turned around and headed home.

* * *

The next morning, everyone had gotten together at the Youth Center.

"Zack, you look terrible, are you alright?" Tanya asked as she noticed Zack lay his head down on the table.

Zack nodded. What else could he say?

"He probably lost sleep last night, worrying about the next time Beelzalea is going to attack." Aisha whispered as she took a sip of the water that she had been drinking.

"So, are all of our enemies like this, constantly attacking us and all?" Tanya asked as she looked over toward Jason and Tommy sparing.

Aisha thought about it for a few seconds. No, not really. The only time that they had been really persistent with their attacks like this, was whenever they were trying to make Kimberly use up all of her power, back before she had left the team.

Tanya nodded, saying that she understood this, as Aisha explained it to her.

Zack frowned as his eyes looked around the room.

Aisha, Tanya, Billy, and Trini were all sitting here with him, while Kat was spotting Kimberly while she practiced gymnastics. Tommy and Jason were sparing, while Adam was working out at the punching bag. Kylie wasn't really staying still; Zack saw her wandering around the youth center, staring in wonder at everything. Sometimes a couple of people would see her, recognize her as being new to Angel Grove, and decide to make an attempt to be friends with her.

Alone, was mysteriously absent from the Youth Center, a fact that didn't bother Zack one bit. He really didn't want to deal with Alone for a little while, not after the information that he had dropped on him last night.

Everything seemed peaceful for right now, but Zack knew it was bound to only be a few more hours before Beelzalea would get bored and call out a monster to take them from this peaceful day.

_Keeping us on our toes, this had to be what Beelzalea was intending. She wants to wear us down, physically, hoping that would make it easy for this Chaos thing to take control of them, by making them go insane, Kind of like it did with Shadow Chameleon._ Zack thought as he looked around.

He wondered how long it would take before the first of them cracked and actually fell victim to this Chaos thing.

As soon as it happened, would they be faced with a repeat of the Sleep-walker incident?

Only this time, it would really be their friend, and not an evil monster.

Or, would they all eventually go insane, and have to be sealed away like Shadow Chameleon's gang had to be?

Zack wondered how that would go; it would be pretty weird, he was sure of that.

As he thought about that, Zack began to wonder about other things.

Alone had mentioned that there had been 12 members of these "Ancient Guardians."

That meant that there were others who were going to be showing up, right?

Zack wondered what they were going to be like. He hoped they wouldn't be too much like Shadow Chameleon, hopefully weaker. He hoped that Shadow Chameleon would have been the worst of their problems.

But, he knew that the likely hood of their enemies deciding to put the toughest of these Rangers out on the field before they brought in the weaker ones was almost nonexistent.

It was still worth hoping for though.

"This place is amazing!" Kylie announced as she walked over to the group and took a seat beside Trini. Zack could practically see her eyes shining with excitement.

Seeing her optimism and excitement at seeing new things, made Zack feel a lot better. He wasn't sure why, but seeing a person who was very optimistic and cheerful even though surrounded in a world they weren't used to, just made him feel so much better.

"You okay?" Kylie asked as she looked over at Zack.

She knew she wasn't the first person to ask this to Zack, but she felt that it was necessary to ask him again.

Zack nodded, lying.

"It's Alone isn't it?" Kylie suddenly asked, seeing right through Zack's lie.

Raising an eyebrow, Zack sat up. How had Kylie immediately jumped to that conclusion, and known what was wrong?

Trini looked over at Zack, by his reaction, she was sure that something had happened, and something that Alone had said had bothered him. After all, they were all bothered by Alone, as they tried to figure him out, but not to the point of almost depression.

"I talked with Alone last night..." Zack said.

"So? What did he say?" Billy asked. He was curious to know what Alone could possibly have wanted to talk to Zack about, and why they hadn't been gathered together to hear what had to be said.

Zack frowned. Alone had trusted him with this information, he couldn't just tell them what he had been told. Could he?

No. That would be shattering any trust that Alone had in him, and from the way that Alone had talked last night, he had little trust in the rangers to begin with.

"He didn't get to say much, we ran into Minerva and Beelzalea." He stated trying to change the subject.

Aisha gasped. Beelzalea had been down on Earth, and they hadn't been alerted?

"But, what did Alone manage to tell you?" Billy asked.

Zack shook his head and got up from the table. "I-I promised him I wouldn't say. I've got to go. I'll see you later." He said quickly as he gathered his things and walked out of the Youth Center.

"What was all that about?" Jason asked as he, Tommy, Jason, Adam, Kat, and Kimberly joined the group at the table.

Aisha stared at the doorway that Zack had just left through. "Alone."

"He talked to Zack last night, but Zack said he promised Alone that he wouldn't tell us what had been said." Billy continued.

"It must have been something really troubling too, the way that Zack went off like that." Trini added.

Kylie looked down at the table. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. I shouldn't have said anything about Alone to Zack."

"It's Okay, you didn't know that Zack was going to react like that. None of us did." Adam said as he put his hand on Kylie's shoulder, trying to cheer her up.

Aisha crossed her arms and shook her head. "Whatever Alone made Zack promise not to tell, must have been something major."

Trini got up from the table and looked around the group. "Maybe I should go and check on him, to make sure he's alright." She suggested as she headed towards the exit.

Aisha nodded, and got up and followed Trini. "I'll go to."

* * *

Standing in the shadows, a woman with Short red hair watched the Rangers, unnoticed "I don't think that Alone is going to be a problem Beelzalea. In fact, he's making my job a lot easier. With our Queen's help, he may create a rift between each of the Rangers, and make them easier targets to eliminate, one by one." She stated under her breath as she watched the Rangers talking.

"_Don't be so sure, this division might be part of his plans to attempt to defeat us." _Beelzalea's voice echoed in the woman's head.

The woman gave a brief laugh, "Part of his plan to make sure he isn't found out..." She muttered under her breath. "I'm surprised Ninjor, and the other authorities haven't been keeping an eye on him, and let him slip right out from under their noses...and with the Bronze Power Coin, and morpher no doubt."

_"It is a good thing he did so too. The Ninjetti Power wouldn't have been united, and you would have still been sealed up" _

"I guess you are right. You know, I should pay Alone a visit." The woman muttered as she vanished into thin air.

* * *

Alone was walking down the streets of Angel Grove's business district with his hands in his pockets, looking around from building to building.

So far Earth, and especially Angel Grove, reminded him a lot of his old home planet.

Just walking down the business district, Alone felt right at home.

As he passed by the flower-vendor, the sweet smell of the arrangements reached his nose, and the bright colors caught his eye. He just had to stop and take a look at the flowers there.

"These are beautiful." He said aloud, as he reached out and gently touched some of the flowers before him.

_They'd never survive the trip back home. Even through teleportation, they wouldn't last, and you can't go to the gravesite empty handed, Alone, not again, you promised. _Alone thought as he shook his head and turned his attention to other flowers.

"You know, you should get your special someone some roses..." A voice stated from beside Alone, causing him to turn towards the speaker.

His blue eyes came in contact with a pair of deep-brown eyes, belonging to a woman who looked to be about his age, with short vibrant red hair.

"No. I'm not seeing anyone." He stated bluntly.

The woman smirked and crossed her arms. "Oh, really? That's too bad. A handsome man like you should at least have someone...A real pity you're all alone." She stated.

Alone frowned as he turned his attention back to the flowers.

"Well, I'm not seeing anyone. So how about you and me go and get some tea and get to know each other?" The woman asked, taking a step closer to Alone and draped her arm over his shoulders.

Alone frowned.

"Let me guess, you like your tea sweet and hot, like you like your men?" Alone asked sarcastically crossing his arms.

The woman laughed loudly as she pushed herself away from Alone, and the two began walking away from the flower stand.

"How did you know?" She asked, batting her eyelashes at Alone, and staring at him with innocent looking eyes.

"It's rather sloppy of a siren to use the same line on someone twice, or has your slumber made you rusty, Asherah?" he asked looking towards the woman with a smirk set on his face.

The woman crossed her arms, and stopped walking. She shook her head and began laughing for a few seconds, amused that Alone seemed to have quickly recognized her.

"Ah, it's good to see you again too! I see you haven't lost your keen senses, or your youth. Alone. "

Alone shook his head, a smirk still set upon his face.

"After Dalise: The Light Chameleon-or rather should I say The Shadow Chameleon? Since after Light is corrupted by Chaos it turns into Shadow-arrived, I was almost sure that they would have sent the rest of the team all in at once to hypnotize and slaughter mercilessly. I'm a little disappointed your Queen only sought to send in one at a time."

Asherah smiled and rocked back and forth on her heels for a minute. "Personally I didn't understand it either. But, My Queen's orders are orders, even if they are coming through the lips of that _puppet_ of hers-."

"Careful what you say..." Alone said, casting a serious look towards the red-haired woman beside him.

Asherah nodded, and swung her hands at her side. "Oh, right. Right. That old 'we're on the same team...so mess with one of all you just messed with all of us...' thing. Sorry." She said offhandedly as she walked beside Alone.

Crossing his arms, Alone continued to look ahead.

_Not only because she is Lior's successor to the White Ninjetti Shogun power...but..._

_No. Forget it Alone...It's too upsetting to think about._ He thought as he looked at the ground as he walked.

"After what you saw the Rangers do to Dalise, you do realize that you're going on a suicide mission right?" He asked after sighing and turning down an alleyway.

Asherah nodded. "My Queen's orders are still orders. If she says I am to die at the hands of the Power Rangers, then I have to trust that she knows best, and that my death is only a part of a larger plan which I am to never understand or question. You know what it's like." She said looking towards the sky.

A frown spread across Alone's lips, and he shook his head.

"No I don't know what that's like. Not anymore. Not since what the Ancient Guardians did." He stated bitterly.

Putting her hands on her hips, Asherah shook her head.

"Hey, don't blame it all on us. You had as much responsibility for what happened."

"No need to remind me Asherah. I haven't let myself forget that mistake."

"So you make a couple of bad mistakes here and there..."

Alone was silent for several minutes as he thought over what Asherah had just said. A couple of bad mistakes? She made it seem like it was nothing, like he had made the mistake of accidentally over-cooking something, or accidentally overlooking a minor detail on something.

"Asherah..."

"Yes?"

"You know that I'm not your friend and that I'm working with the Rangers..."

"So?"

"Then why haven't you tried to kill me?"

Asherah laughed as Alone asked this, his blue eyes were on her looking very confused.

"I thought that would be obvious."

Alone shook his head and sighed. "If you're expecting me to take it easy on you when we fight later, you're out of luck. The Rangers aren't going to take it easy on you. To them you are just another monster, and since we are no longer on the same team, I will have to see you as my enemy as well." He said as he continued down the alleyway.

Asherah stopped. "I know Alone. Things aren't like they were back in the old days...I understand that perfectly well. I just came to thank you."

Alone stopped walking. "Thank me?"

"Of course. If you had not brought the Bronze Power Coin to Earth, and chose someone to wield it's power...then, I wouldn't have been freed."

Alone shrugged. "It wasn't what I was intending. How was I supposed to know that the Great Power of the Ninjetti was immediately linked to the Ninjetti Shogun Ranger Power, or that I wasn't the only Ninjetti Shogun Ranger in existence, and that could break the seal that had been keeping you guys locked away?" He said.

Shaking his head, he continued on down the street.

"You aren't free Asherah." He said after a few minutes of silence.

Asherah raised an eyebrow. "I would think that If I am standing here talking to you, that I am." she said crossing her arms.

"You may have been freed from the prison that you were locked away in, but as long as you are under the command of Chaos, you aren't free." Alone continued.

"How come?" Asherah shot back putting her hand on her hip.

Alone crossed his arms. "I doubt you will ever understand..."

A silence fell between Alone and Asherah as they continued down the street, until Asherah suddenly stopped.

"Hey, Alone."

"Yeah?"

"I know that we're not on the same side anymore, and you see me as a monster...but...We're still friends right?"

Alone stopped and looked over his shoulder at Asherah.

A smile appeared on his face. "Of course. Once a Ranger, always a Ranger. Always a friend, even if a fiend."

"Glad to hear it."

Asherah looked down at the ground for a few minutes before addressing Alone again.

"Alone..."

"Yeah?"

"When we all die. The other Ancient guardians and I..." She began.

Alone raised an eyebrow, signaling to the red-head to go on.

"Could you decorate our graves with some Earth flowers? They're really pretty."

"Why?"

"I doubt you will ever understand."

With this, Asherah gave Alone one last nod and wink and vanished into thin air.

* * *

Beelzalea frowned as she watched the scene between Alone and Asherah take place through a shard of glass that she had found in her room in the castle.

"She's going soft on us, my queen." Beelzalea muttered as she laid the shard down on the table.

/_She is merely a pawn in this game, Beelzalea. She is dispensable, unlike you. If she breaks from my power it will be no big loss, I plan on having her die anyhow./_

Beelzalea frowned as she looked back towards the shard of glass that was lying on the table. "Why does she have to die, my queen?"

/_The Rangers have to expend their energies trying to defeat her. Weaken their Power, and it will be easier for me to take over them. You should already know this Beelzalea./_

_"_Force them to tap into the Ninjetti, and utilize the spirits like the Ape did, hoping to damage their life-forces, and weaken them. Summoning the Ninjetti spirits into physical form expends a lot of energy, and involves the merging of life-force." Beelzalea muttered as she paced the room.

/_Ninjor was reckless deciding to connect the Ninjetti Power directly to the life-force of those humans. Force them to utilize the spirits and it should damage the life-force, leaving them weak and vulnerable, and thus leaving the Ninjetti power and themselves susceptible to my power./_

Beelzalea frowned and sat down on her bed, if the plan was successful and the Power Rangers really joined the ranks of all those serving under Chaos, then what would become of her?

How indispensible would she be after the Rangers were in her Queen's control?

She would be killed, wouldn't she, as soon as her Queen found someone new.

Beelzalea frowned. That Pink Ranger would probably be who her Queen would choose. Since she was so happy and cheerful now, it would only have made sense that the one that it would actually take more effort over the others to break down, would be the next one that Chaos would prefer using as her eyes.

If not her then it would be the Green Ranger. Yes. Beelzalea thought, if the Crane would not be the next set of eyes, then the Turtle would, after all she was so much more sophisticated.

If not either of them, then it would be the Bear. She was stronger and tougher than Beelzalea herself was.

Beelzalea frowned at the thought. Then they _must_ be eliminated. She wasn't about to lose her life or become second-best to any of the Ranger Girls. She was going to prove to her Queen that she would still be worthy even after the Rangers were all under her control.

* * *

The throne room was empty for now. Rita and her mother were out for a walk on the moon, Ivan had accompanied them. This left Zedd by himself.

He enjoyed the peace and quiet, even if knowing that Ivan Ooze was out on a walk with his wife made him uncomfortable.

It gave him time to think of a plan to get rid of Beelzalea.

With the recent development of things, Zedd was certain of two things. One that she was definitely trying to get him and Rita apart, by bringing in Ivan Ooze. Two, she had connections to rangers.

If he tried to face her head on right now, he would probably be up against every Ancient Guardian, and would be crushed. He had already seen what they could do to one planet; he knew that to them he was nothing but a pebble in their way.

Once they were out of the way, he would have a greater chance to try to take her down.

In fact, I might not even have to take her down on my own. He thought as he remembered over hearing a conversation between Finster and Beelzalea a couple of days ago.

He just had to wait for the opportune moment, after the guardians were all dead.

* * *

Ivan cast a glance over towards Rita as the group stopped in the garden that was growing in one of the caves behind the palace.

He couldn't believe that he was going to have to be married to that woman, even for a little while.

He just wished that Beelzalea would hurry up with her plan. He was sick of all this waiting.

* * *

Zack stood in the parking lot out in front of the Youth Center talking to himself.

"Damn it Alone. How come you had to trust me with this information? You know I would never keep a secret from my friends. It might be okay for you to keep information from _your_ friends, but that ain't me. That just ain't me. Not when the secret is this important." He said wringing his hands together as he paced around.

If anything were to happen to the Rangers, Zack knew that it would be his fault. He knew what they were really facing, and he knew their potential future enemies.

"If you know so much about these Ancient Guardians, why don't you help us then? Tell us everything, Alone. We are your allies aren't we?"

"Ancient Guardians?"

Zack's breath got caught in his throat temporarily as he heard Trini ask this question.

He had just said all of that out loud didn't he?

Man, was Alone going to be mad when he found out!

"Is that what Alone told you about last night? These Ancient Guardians?" Aisha asked

"I promised Alone I wouldn't tell you guys anything." Zack groaned as he put his hand on his head.

Tanya put her hand on her hip, and smiled.

"Zack, relax, I don't think you just _told_ us anything. You mentioned it, and we overheard, and it's not like you actually said anything about these Ancient Guardians, or said anything else about what Alone said, so call it a technicality, but you haven't actually broken any promises," She said.

"Yeah...yeah. I guess you are right." Zack said as he tried to keep himself from pacing back and forth.

"Come on Zack, let's get back to the others, and just forget about Alone for right now." Trini suggested as she put her hand on Zack's shoulder.

Zack nodded, and the group returned back inside the Youth Center.

Aisha lingered around in the parking lot for awhile.

She had never seen Zack so upset about all of this. Alone had him really worked up.

While she knew that Trini would probably talk Billy into looking up more about these 'Ancient Guardians' through the link to the Command center's database that he had back at his lab, Aisha wanted to talk face to face about all this with Alone, even though she knew she probably shouldn't.

As she started walking into the Youth Center, Aisha soon found herself ambushed by Tengu.

Before she could even morph into her Ninja suit, one of the Tengu struck her hard in the back of the head, knocking her out.

As Aisha fell to the ground and lost her consciousness, she saw a pair of black boots come into her vision.

"What should we do with her?" One of the Tengu asked.

"Take her to-"

Aisha never got to hear what else was said, because her consciousness had slipped at this point.

* * *

Rain was pouring down outside, Finster could hear it as he paced down the hallway.

He had just been dismissed from the banquet hall of Minerva and her current husband's castle, to fetch some more wine to celebrate the recent defeat of one of the neighboring planets.

"_That's two of the four Kings down! With him out of the way, It'll only be a matter of time for the other Kingdoms to fall!_" he could hear Minerva saying from the banquet hall. Her voice echoing off the walls of the empty hallway outside.

"_Who would have guessed that things would turn out like that? One of the Kings has turned evil, and another is dead! It'll only be a matter of time before the other two fall too_."

"_That I have to admit was rather good timing. The day his daughter was to be married! That was a rather lovely ambush to, before anyone knew what was going on, the whole castle and the surrounding town was ablaze! Then to think, he had a whole army of soldiers waiting in the forest for anyone who was trying to escape! Brilliant!"_

"_Yes, Yes. I'm almost jealous of that young man's strategy."_ said Minerva's husband.

"_I think that's exactly _

_the type of man that my little Rita needs to marry. You know?_"

Finster laughed to himself. He couldn't help but think of how silly that sounded, Rita getting married? It was hard something that he saw happening.

She wasn't even out of school yet, and Minerva was already trying to get her to be married!

"_Minerva, that man wasn't a royal. He might have been a Lord in his King's Military, but he's not a King, and haven't you been talking about trying to marry Rita off to a King, I seem to recall your displeasure when you found out that that one boy that you had arranged for Rita to marry wasn't a blood-heir to the throne on his planet._"

"_I was merely saying that Rita should marry someone with royal blood that had that type of brilliant strategy. Not that she should marry that boy_."

Finster sighed. He had best hurry up with the wine before Minerva and her husband's argument progressed any further. Finster knew that if the argument got any more heated, then Minerva would more than likely begin to take it out on everyone else. The most anyone could do to avoid it would be to keep her happy.

As he walked down the hall, he noticed a group of servants were standing by the door.

He could hear frantic whispers echoing down the hall.

"_What is this_?"

"_Is she alright_?"

"_Where'd she come from?"_

"_Oh! Finster! There you are! Come here quick!_!" One of the servants shouted down the hallway trying to get Finster's attention.

He approached the group, adjusting his glasses to try to get a better look at what it was that they were all crowded around.

When he had come close enough, he was surprised to find that there was a humanoid figure laying there.

Her hair was long and white. The dress that she wore, was ripped, burned, and stained with blood. She was clutching a katana in her hand.

She was rather young looking.

* * *

Finster, sighed as he shook that memory from his head as he passed by Beelzalea's room in the servant's quarters.

That had been the first time that he had ever met Beelzalea.

After he had taken her into the infirmary, and she had regained consciousness, He had tried to find out more about her.

He asked her where she was from, if she was from the village. She responded that she was, and that a riot had broken out in the village, and she had gotten caught in the crossfire, and somehow had wandered into the castle.

Finster had decided upon hearing Beelzalea's story that he would begin to teach her the ways of being a Magi, and would train her as his replacement.

Minerva had been talking about giving him over to her daughter when she finally got out on her own and started to conquer planets, and so he knew that Minerva would be in need of someone to help her around the castle while he was gone.

He had to admit, while he was teaching her, Beelzalea did seem unusually gifted in the magical arts. He hadn't ever really thought much about it before now.

Now, with the unusual behavior, and the secrets suddenly starting to spring up. He was starting to wonder about her, and what was going on. He began to doubt everything that she had told him the day that they had first met.

* * *

"Hey, guys, where's Aisha?" Kat asked after a few minutes, interrupting the group's previous conversation.

Zack shrugged his shoulders and looked out the door. He thought that Aisha has been right behind them when they had come back into the Youth center.

"Maybe she had just had to take care of something outside, that she remembered when she was outside." Jason suggested as he sat down.

Kimberly bit her lip. "But, she would have told someone...and whatever it was, she should have been back by now."

Tommy and Adam looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"You don't think...?" They both asked at the same time.

Billy got up from the table. "I'll go outside and see if she's there." He said.

Once outside, Billy found the parking lot to be completely empty.

Tapping his communicator, he tried to get in contact with Aisha to see where she had gone off to. Unfortunately each time he tried to get through to Aisha he found that he couldn't connect to her communicator.

He was about to try to contact Zordon, whenever he heard an unusual, but lovely sound starting to come from the other end of the parking lot.

As he listened to the song, he found himself in a trance, everything became red tinted.

Billy found that his feet started moving on his own, taking him towards the source of the noise, the song was ringing in his ears.

As he drew near the source of the voice, the singing got louder, and the shade of red that had covered everything in Billy's sight became darker, and everything became blurry.

As he approached the source of the sound, he came face to face with a woman with short red hair.

In his trance state, he found that he was unable to defend himself against this woman, as she punched him in the gut when he had drawn close enough to her.

The last thing that he remembered before blacking out was hearing the woman laughing over head.

"That's two down to use as bait. The others should come looking for them soon."

* * *

Minutes had passed, and the other rangers had yet to hear from either Billy or Aisha, and they were starting to get worried.

Getting up from the table the group headed into the hallway.

"Billy, Aisha, Come in..." Jason stated tapping his communicator as soon as they had made sure that the coast was clear.

No response came except for the standard sound that unusually indicated that the connection had failed to work.

They tried again.

Again, no response.

"Let's try Zordon." Kylie suggested. "He might know where they are."

Tommy agreed, and tapped his communicator. " Zordon. Come in."

"I read you Tommy, what is it?" Zordon's voice asked from the communicator.

"Aisha and Billy are missing, We haven't seen them in a while, and they were just right outside not but a moment ago."

"The Command Center's scanners have not picked up any unusual activity in the last half hour. If anything does turn up. We will contact you immediately."

"Alright, thanks Zordon."

Kimberly looked at Kat as the two of them frowned. They both were getting the suspicion that something was up, and it had to do with Beelzalea. She had already proved once that she could keep the alarm system in the Command Center from going off, they both were pretty sure that she could do it again, just long enough to kidnap both Aisha and Billy.

Zack crossed his arms. He had a bad feeling that Alone knew exactly what was going on. If anyone could tell them where Aisha and Billy had disappeared to, Zack was sure it was him.

"Wait, Zack where are you going?" Trini asked when she noticed that Zack was about to leave the building.

"I'm going to look for Alone. I need to talk to him about something."

"I'll go with you." Tanya said.

Zack shook his head. "You guys stay here. Stay close on the MPVGs." He said.

Trini nodded. She understood what Zack wanted them to do. The only way that they were going to get any information out of Alone, about what was going on would be if they did a little spying.

She just hoped that Alone wouldn't get too mad if he found out.

Plus, if Zack mysteriously disappeared when he got outside, they would know what happened to him.

* * *

Aisha groaned as she regained consciousness. Her head hurt terribly.

She could hear the roar of fire near by her, and she could feel the heat of fire on her face. She was starting to sweat. She could smell burning rock and stale air. All the noises she heard around her seemed to be amplified strangely.

As her vision adjusted, she found that she was in a cavernous hall that looked like a temple. There were statues all over the room. The entrance to the area was blocked by a wall of lava. She wasn't sure how she had gotten there, but she was sure that getting out was going to be difficult.

She found that Billy was lying across the room from her, at the foot of one of the statues. Apparently he had been captured sometime after she had been.

"Billy, wake up!"

Billy groaned as Aisha shook him trying to wake him up.

The minute that he felt the heat of the room on his face, and smelt the acrid smell of lava, he immediately awoke.

"What happened? Where are we?" Billy asked as he sat up.

Aisha shrugged her shoulders. She honestly couldn't answer either one of those questions. The last thing she remembered was being attacked outside of the Youth Center and then waking up here.

"...No doubt Beelzalea is behind this..." Billy stated after a few minutes of observing his surroundings.

"Well, that puppet did give me my Queen's orders, but I can assure you the one behind your capture, and the one who had provided you with such lovely, and comfortable accommodations is me." A voice sounded from nearby.

Aisha and Billy looked towards the source of the voice. They saw a woman with short red hair standing up on a ledge several feet above them.

"Who are you?" Billy asked as the woman teleported down to them.

The woman laughed and put one hand on her hip, and motioned to herself with the other hand. "I am Fire Siren. The Strongest and Most Beautiful of my Mistress's servants."

"Strongest? That's what that Shadow Chameleon said about himself. So Who am I supposed to believe here?" Aisha commented crossing her arms.

Asherah frowned as her gaze turned towards Aisha; a brief smile came across her face. The Yellow Ranger's spirit and attitude reminded her much of herself back in the old days, before she had gone evil.

"What did he know about strength? I was the leader of the Ancient Guardian Rangers, as the Red Ranger. Shadow Chameleon, he was only second in command, being the Green Ranger and all." She said as she shrugged her shoulders and started to pace around the room.

"Rangers?" Billy found himself asking aloud.

So, This woman was a Ranger, and Shadow Chameleon had been a Ranger?

Asherah stopped pacing the room, and turned towards Billy with an eyebrow raised. "Didn't Alone tell you anything?"

Aisha crossed her arms, and shook her head. "Alone doesn't tell us much. Just like he didn't tell us that he was associated with the likes of you."

A laugh came from Asherah.

"Still keeping information to yourself, are you Alone?" She asked as she crossed her arms and looked at the ground. "Still making that same old mistake."

She turned her gaze towards Billy. "Well, never you mind about him. In any case, you're here now and you'll find that teleporting and morphing will be difficult, and that's all that matters."

With a small giggle she reached out and ran her fingers along the side of Billy's face gently, and fluttered her eyelashes before turning and walking away.

"Your friends should be joining you here in awhile. Perhaps you should make yourselves comfortable." She said as she motioned towards a couple of chairs that she had conjured up out of thin air.

Deciding that there was nothing else to do, Aisha and Billy sat down on the chairs that had appeared

Asherah took a seat across from them on a separate chair.

"Tea?" She asked as she conjured up a pot of tea from thin air.

Aisha looked over at Billy with her eyebrow raised in worry. Well, this was getting awkward, it wasn't everyday that one of their enemies would offer them tea.

"Please, don't be afraid. It's perfectly good tea, a little hot, but it's safe to drink. The only thing in it is sugar, and that'll only be in it if you want it to be."

* * *

Zack found Alone sitting on a bench in the park near the pond. He was looking off into the distance as if he were thinking about something. Zack approached him without making any noise, as not to immediately alert Alone of his presence.

"You wanted to talk?" Alone asked as Zack sat down beside him.

"Yeah. Aisha and Billy just disappeared, and I think you've got a good idea where they are."

Alone looked out over the water on the nearby pond. "She's not going to hurt them, not until you and the others arrive. Or unless her orders change." he said.

Zack looked at Alone. "Then you know where they are, and who kidnapped them?"

Alone nodded. "Yes. Her name is Asherah. She is the Red Ancient Guardian. The Fire Siren. More than likely she has the two of them captive."

This whole issue seemed to be bothering Alone, Zack could tell.

"Alone, I'm not going to pry into your business. But I can tell something is bothering you."

Alone remained silent. He didn't want to admit that he didn't like the idea that the Rangers were going to be fighting a friend of his. It bothered him to no end that one of the Rangers was going to kill his friend, and what was it all for? Just because that was the way that things were supposed to go? It was all just part of some master plan?

"So...I'm just going to ask one thing."

Alone looked up at Zack curiously.

"Will you go with us?"

Taking a deep breath Alone nodded and got to his feet.

He was going to be there. He had to be there.

"Good. we'll meet up with the others back at the Command Center."

* * *

"Asherah, The Fire Siren is holding Mr. Cranston and Miss Campbell on her home planet in the M-98 galaxy. The planet has been abandoned for quite some time." Alone explained, to the group once they had all gotten to the Command Center, and he had explained most of the situation that was going on.

"How do you know this stuff?" Kimberly asked as she looked over from the viewing globe.

Alone took a deep breath and decided to ignore Kimberly for the moment.

"The planet is home to a large volcano, on an island off the coast of the Western Continent. The tribe of people that Asherah was from used to live on that island."

Zack crossed his arms. He could bet that one of the legendary creatures that protected the planet was probably a Siren, which resided in a volcano.

He could just imagine the legend about that Power. He could imagine that the legend was probably about how the siren in the volcano used to lead young men to the top of the volcano and force them to jump into the volcano.

Kimberly crossed her arms. The more that Alone ignored her questions the less that she trusted him, and she was getting pretty darn close to losing her trust in him.

Alone sensed the Pink Ranger's annoyed stare upon his back.

"Alright. So, If she's got Aisha and Billy in this volcano temple then it's up to us to go in and get them." Jason stated as he turned towards the group, "We're going to need a battle plan."

"I have the coordinates to the planet, which would put us out in front of the volcano. We shouldn't have to worry about security getting up there, since Asherah is waiting for us to show up. The only time we'll have to worry about any type of defense is after the battle starts. Asherah will want to try to keep us all busy, so that only one of us will be able to face her. Let's choose who that person is going to be and try to make absolutely sure that they will be the one facing off against her." Alone said as he looked over at Jason.

"With a name like 'Fire Siren' I'd assume that she's got an elemental attribute to her power that would allow most of her powers to be fire-based. So, whoever is going to face her is going to have the opposing element for the battle." Alpha said as he approached the rangers.

Kat looked down at the ground. Well, if they had to choose someone whose ranger power base-element was opposite of Fire, then that meant she would have to do it. After all the Green Ranger power's base element for the Ninjetti power was Water, and water was opposite of fire.

"I suggest that Miss Hillard, Mr. Park, or Miss Lane fight against Asherah. Ice and Water oppose Fire and therefore would be most preferable against Asherah. If I had to make a choice on who would be the one to fight against Asherah, I would suggest that it be Miss Hillard. Water had more of a chance of over-powering Fire, and the battle would be over much sooner." Alone said as he paced the room.

Stepping forward Kat nodded. "I'd hate to say this, but I agree with Alone. If he's dealt with her before, I think he would know how to handle her. So, I'll fight her."

Alone gave a weak smile and a nod as he looked at the Green Ranger. So it was decided. She was going to be the one who would end up killing his friend. Even though he knew that it was what she had to do, he couldn't help but feel a little contempt towards her.

"If we're going to be going, we should be going." Tommy said as he looked around at the group.

With a nod of agreement, the 10 teleported out of the Command Center.

* * *

When they landed, they were greeted by the sight of a beautiful tropical island.

"That must be the volcano up there. Let's keep an eye out for any sort of entrance." Jason said as the group headed out.

Alone lingered around the back of the group for a few seconds.

"Miss Hart." He said, getting Kimberly's attention.

She stopped and turned towards him.

"You'll trust Zordon and Ninjor, upon little information on their pasts...but you won't trust me?"

Kimberly crossed her arms. "They're usually honest with us if we ask a question. They've proven to me that I can trust them. You won't tell us anything." She said.

Alone gave a smile. "Good point."

Kimberly shrugged and shook her head deciding to go and catch up with the others; she wasn't sure what else to say that she was sure Alone hadn't already heard before.

"Miss Hart..." Alone stated again, getting Kimberly's attention.

"Hmm?"

Kimberly could tell that Alone sounded concerned about something and wanted her opinion on whatever it was that was concerning him. Even though she barely trusted him, it just wasn't her to turn someone down when they wanted her input on something.

"Say that you were in a situation where, one of your friends, let's say Miss Hillard, had to kill another friend of yours. Now, this friend had already been set up to be killed, They had been given orders by let's say, Zordon, and their death was all a part of some plan that you still haven't figured out. They were okay with the fact that they were going to have to die, but you weren't exactly okay with it but you couldn't exactly stop it..." Alone began.

Kimberly gave a brief smile. She understood what Alone was trying to get at, for once. This Asherah lady had to have been a former friend of his, and them going up against her must have been a tough thing for him to deal with.

"As a person who knows flowers, what type of flower would you suggest for that friend's grave?"

Raising an eyebrow Kimberly signaled to Alone that she was confused. She had been expecting him to ask if he should forgive Kat, now he was asking about flowers?

"What?"

"If your friend...wanted their grave decorated with Earth flowers, then what type of flowers would you decorate their grave with?"

Kimberly shrugged. "I don't really know. Sorry."

Alone nodded. "It's alright. Thank you anyways Miss Hart."

"Yeah. Anyhow, we'd better catch up with the others." Kimberly said as she headed down the path towards the others who were waiting several feet ahead of them.

* * *

"...And so that's how I became the Red Ancient Guardian Ranger." Asherah finished as she poured herself another cup of tea.

Billy gave a weak laugh. This was still rather uncomfortable for him and Aisha. Asherah was sitting here being so nice and decent to them, even though they knew that by the time the others got there, she'd completely change her tune.

Asherah looked down at the two tea-cups that sat on the coffee table she had conjured up between them. Neither the Blue nor the Yellow Ranger had even touched their tea.

"Would you like for me to warm up the tea for either of you?" She asked looking at the both of them.

Aisha shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, but I'll have to pass."

Billy nodded agreeing with Aisha that he would have to pass on Asherah's offer.

Asherah nodded. "Waiting for it to cool down."

"Right, that must be it." Aisha said, trying to sound polite although coming off as sarcastic.

"Oh, please. If you don't want to drink the tea, you can just tell me I'm not going to get mad. It would be very impolite of a hostess to force her visitors to drink something that they don't want to." Asherah said as she smiled at the two.

A few seconds passed, and Asherah shook her head. "Oh well. I'll just leave it there, in case you change your minds."

Aisha bit her lip and nodded.

"So, you know Alone..." she said slowly, trying to think of something to use as a conversation topic. She figured that as long as they were here, and as long as this woman was being nice to them, she might as well try to get some information out of her, through polite conversation.

"Oh, yes. Alone and I are old friends. Back before I started working for my Queen, I was protecting this planet and Alone's home planet, the one that he used to defend back before, well...that's not important. His home planet and its ruler used to be in alliance with us." Asherah stated as she took a sip of her tea.

Putting her cup down she frowned. "But that's all in the past now."

Aisha glanced over at Billy. It seemed that Asherah was actually upset about this. Whatever had happened back then must have been pretty bad.

Before Aisha could think on it any more, a loud crash issued from nearby, as part of the temple came crashing in.

Asherah got to her feet quickly, glaring at the group of Rangers who had just arrived.

"Do you mind? My guests and I are having tea, and would prefer that we be left in peace." She shouted.

"Aisha! Billy! C'mon we're getting out of here." Tommy said as he motioned for Aisha and Billy to join them, while Asherah was distracted.

Asherah held out her arm out to the side to block Aisha and Billy from moving. "They're not going anywhere, not until they finish their tea."

Snapping her fingers, the outfit she had been wearing changed into a Ranger suit, which was white and red, except for the edge of the skirt which had a black line running along the edge.

"Alright, it looks like it's time to Morph. Remember the plan guys." Jason said as he held out his morpher.

Asherah smiled, her eyes narrowing malevolently behind her helmet. "Good, I've been waiting a long time for this. I've dropped the morphing barrier so give me your best shot Power Rangers."

* * *

"It's Morphin' Time!" Tommy called out drawing out his morpher. "White Ranger Power!"

"Black Ranger Power!"

"Pink Ranger Power!"

"Blue Ranger Power!"

"Yellow Ranger Power!"

"Orange Ranger Power!"

"Green Ranger Power!"

"Purple Ranger Power!"

"Gold Ranger Power!"

"Silver Ranger Power!"

"Bronze Ranger Power!"

"Shogun Black, Armor on!" Alone called out as his outfit changed into his usual ranger armor as the multicolored lights shot from the morphers of the other rangers.

All of the rangers in the room drew out their weapons, forming a circle around Asherah, knowing it would be difficult for her to strike all of them at once.

* * *

Kat drew out the dragon dagger and stepped towards Asherah. She was completely nervous about the whole situation, For one of the first times in her life she was going to be facing someone by herself in combat.

Sure, she had fought off Tengu warriors on her own, shortly after she had joined the team, but she had never fought off any real opponent on her own.

She sure hoped she was up for it.

Everyone was counting on her to win this battle.

"Oh. This is delightful; A one on one duel is it?"

Kat nodded as she gripped the power dagger in her hand, and fell into a stance to enable herself to strike Asherah, or to defend herself when the situation called for it.

Asherah scoffed and motioned with her hand over her shoulder as if she were flipping her hair, as she did this, a metal fan appeared in her hands. The edge of the fan was ablaze

"It's too bad you think that fighting solves everything." She said with a frown.

Kat frowned at this comment. Asherah was really accusing her of believing that everything situation could be solved by violence?

Clearly Asherah knew nothing about her or the other rangers. Violence was always a last resort.

Wasn't it?

Didn't they try to find some other way of solving a problem before resulting to violence?

Kat shook her head. She couldn't be thinking things like that right now. Asherah was trying to distract her so that she had the upper hand in the battle.

It wasn't going to happen. Not if she could help it.

"Oh, Where are my manners? Here I am chatting with your Green Ranger, and I barely have paid any attention to any of the rest of you!" Asherah said with a mock tone of apology in her voice.

With this, she briefly sang. The sounds began producing glowing red sound waves to start resonating from her helmet.

As the waves dispersed a loud rumbling began to fill the air.

* * *

Hands began to reach up out of the lava surrounding the area. Soon, several flaming Zombie like creatures began to pull themselves out of the fire, surrounding the rangers.

"What-what's happening? What are these things?" Kimberly shouted in disgust as she backed away from the creature that was coming towards her.

Alone drew out his katana, as the designs on his armor began to turn blue.

"They're the souls of all those who were lured to this volcano by the power that resided here. all those who tried to claim the power as their own. As the possessor of the Red Ancient power, Asherah can command them to do her bidding." He explained.

Kimberly groaned. Just great. That's all they needed, an enemy who could control the dead, as if thing couldn't get any more creepy.

"Billy. If you see that Kat needs any help, get in there and help her." Jason suggested to Billy as he jumped into battle against the Zombie creatures.

Billy nodded as he attacked. He would be sure to keep his eyes on the battle between Kat and Asherah to see if she needed any help.

* * *

Kat charged at Asherah, throwing a punch at her.

Asherah countered with a swift kick to the chest, and sliced at Kat's ranger suit with the fan.

Sparks flew from the suit, as Kat groaned briefly at the sting of the hit. She drew out her dagger and sliced at Asherah, causing sparks to fly from her suit as well.

"Is that the best that you have?"

With a laugh Asherah launched a wave of fire from her fan towards Kat.

In one quick motion Kat put the dagger to the lips of her helmet, and began to quickly play, she hoped that her tune would do what it had back when she had been fighting against Sleep-walker, and she would be shielded from the fire and manage to turn it back around onto Asherah.

Lucky for her it did part of what it was supposed to. The fire collided with a green barrier, and vanished.

Asherah rushed at Kat, swinging the fan at her once more.

Kat blocked the fan with her dagger, and countered.

For what felt like hours, to Kat this battle went on. She would attack, Asherah would dodge and attack, and then Kat would dodge, and counter.

This battle felt like it was getting nowhere.

A Ranger with a Water-base element to their Ranger power would be best to defeat her. Well, Kat thought, that would be me or Billy, but Billy is tied up right now with some other monsters. So, it's up to me.

But how do I even begin to make use of my 'base-element?'

It was one thing to know what element your power had behind it, but it was a completely different thing to know how it's supposed to be used.

"What's the matter Miss Green Ranger? Am I just too good of a fighter for you to keep up?" Asherah teased as the battle came to a brief halt as the two of them stopped to briefly catch their breaths.

"I'd say the score is about even, since this battle is going nowhere." Kat said in-between breaths.

Asherah laughed. "I'd have to say you are right. We both seem to have equal power. So why don't we just call it a draw?"

Kat scoffed a draw? While that would be nice, she knew it was never going to happen. Not today at least. Somebody was going to have to walk away from this battle, and it was either going to be her or Asherah.

"Well, then if a draw is not good enough for you. Then why don't I turn up the heat?" Asherah said as she unfolded her fan with a flick of her hand, holding it directly out towards Kat.

Kat stepped back, not sure what Asherah had planned.

* * *

Fire began to shoot up around Asherah, her body becoming engulfed in flames.

As the fire cleared, The red-suited ranger that Kat had been fighting no longer stood there. Instead in her place, a humanoid Monster stood there.

The Monster-Asherah had half the appearance of a woman with bright red skin that was on fire with long red hair that was tied back in one long ponytail. The fan that Asherah had been fighting with had duplicated itself, one of the fans now hung off of the end of her hair, while the other was in front of her face-which looked like a mask, except the yellow eyes and the fire patterns under the eyes.

Asherah's lower half had transformed into a Giant red snake's tail that had a fire pattern upon it.

"Then how is this? Now that I've infused myself with my Queen's power, I am stronger than ever before. There is no way that you will ever be able beat me, Green Ranger." Her voice hissed out from behind the mask.

Kat bit her lip and gripped the Dragon dagger in her hand. She didn't like this new form at all, and knew it was going to be twice as difficult to defeat Asherah.

With a swing of her claws, Asherah managed to knock Kat off of her feet, and into a nearby pillar.

The force that Kat hit the pillar with managed to crack it slightly.

"Kat!" Trini called out as she ran over to Kat, to see if her friend was okay, only to be blocked by some of the Zombie creatures as they formed a ring around the fight to keep everyone out of the battle that was going on.

With a groan, Kat got back to her feet, bringing the dragon dagger to her lips.

However, she did not manage to even begin to play a note as she was sliced at with the bladed fan in Asherah's hair, and she was thrown against the opposite wall.

"and that's just my physical attacks. You can only imagine how greatly my fire-power has increased!" Asherah laughed as she slithered towards Kat, ready to strike her again.

Kat was beyond mad at this point. She didn't quiet care for being tossed around by this witch. First this woman acts like she's so polite and like she really doesn't want a conflict, and now here she was tossing her around brutally, like all she wanted was a fight. It was starting to get on Kat's nerves.

Asherah began pummeling Kat, repeatedly slashing at her ranger suit and knocking her around the room.

After a few minutes, Kat was laying at the base of one of the statues, trying to catch her breath. her whole body was stinging terribly because of her wounds.

One more attack, and she was sure that Asherah was going to finish her off.

"You're going to love this part!"

And here it comes, she thought as she saw a stream of fire coming towards her as Asherah began to sing.

This was it.

It was all over.

Sorry guys, I guess I failed. I guess I just didn't understand the plan.

No. Kat. Don't say that. She told herself as she braced for the fire to hit her, and begin burning her alive.

You understood the plan well. Have a water base-element fight against a fire base element; it's not your fault that you didn't know how to actually carry out the plan.

Kat began screaming as the fire engulfed her body. Even though the Ranger suit was fire-proof, and was protecting her skin from being burnt to death. She knew that the suits wouldn't hold out too long against the fire.

I sure hope there is room in the infirmary next to Rocky, because that's where they're going to be putting me after this, she thought as the flames began to tear through her suit.

Wait a minute...

Rocky...

* * *

The thought of the Red Ranger, suddenly gave Kat an idea.

That attack that Rocky did, to defeat Sleep-walker...it had fire in it, and the Red Ranger power has a base-element of fire! She thought.

If she could just do what Rocky had did when he had attacked Sleep-walker, her attack might include water, which is just what they needed right now!

Now, what had Rocky done?

Kat had to think quickly; she knew her Ranger suit wasn't going to last much longer, the fire had already burnt through her shield.

Energy. Charge up your energy into your weapon and yourself. She thought.

Closing her eyes, and trying her best to concentrate, Kat began to attempt to channel her Ranger Power into the Dragon Dagger, the only way she knew how.

She brought the Dagger to her lips, and began to play. However, this tune was not like the others that she played to control the Dragon Zord. This was a completely different tune, more serene and flowing, like water.

The Light from the Dragon-dagger began to become brighter and brighter the longer she played. She found that the fire was already beginning to be extinguished from her body as she played, channeling energy into her body.

Charging up this much energy was rather painful, she had to admit. Her muscles were all tensed and she could barely move her fingers, but she somehow kept willing herself to play.

Asherah's eyes became wide as she saw that the Green Ranger's light was repelling her fire-blasts.

We're still in this Kat, Just a little more energy.

Kat could hear nothing but the music in her ears, her heartbeat keeping time to the music.

* * *

"What's going on? I-I've never heard this song before." Tommy said as he watched Kat play. Her body was glowing with a green light around it.

Since he had been the Green Ranger once, he knew the songs that were played on the Dagger and what they did, but this song he had never heard before. He had never played it before when he was the Green Ranger.

"She's charging up the Green Ranger Power, with some of her own life-force. Focusing it into one attack. The longer she plays that tune on the dagger, the brighter the dagger glows, and the brighter she begins to glow, the brighter they both glow, the more energy she has." Billy explained the best he could as he watched the scene in awe.

Aisha frowned. She's doing what Rocky did. Taking on too much energy, and wasting it in an attack. She thought. She knows she's gonna get herself killed that way. I mean look at what happened to Rocky. She didn't want to see that happening to another friend too.

Almost as if addressing her fears, Kimberly spoke up. "But won't she end up like Rocky?"

"I can't say for sure." Billy said looking down.

* * *

There that's it, Kat, That's just enough energy. Kat thought as she brought the dagger away from the lips of her helmet.

"Do you really think that becoming all sparkly is really going to scare me, Miss Green Ranger?"

Kat let out a brief laugh.

"It should."

Kat held out the Dragon Dagger toward Asherah, for several seconds she just stood there with her head down and her arm outstretched.

Suddenly she looked up directly at Asherah, before Asherah could even move; Kat was rushing at her with the dagger, a mighty roar coming from her throat.

As she charged at Asherah, she became nothing more than a green blur, passing right through the red-snake woman, slashing at her from several different directions.

At one point, she threw the Dragon dagger with a spin, its energy keeping it in orbit around Asherah. The light was moving so fast, it almost seemed to be taking the shape of a turtle swimming in the ocean.

Kat continued her attacking on Asherah.

Suddenly, Kat leapt up onto Asherah's shoulders in a handstand. Looking down at Asherah, she saw that the former-ranger monster was confused and furious with her that she had won.

"You're gonna _love_ this part." She said with a smirk behind her helmet.

She did a back flip off of Asherah, landing on the ground outside of the ring that the Dragon dagger created.

Before Asherah could react to move out of the water, Kat threw down her arms and as a beam of green energy slammed into the middle of the circle.

Once colliding with the circle, A giant stream of greenish-blue water shot up out of the ground around the circle.

Asherah's screams were muffled out by the roar of the water.

The Dagger returned to Kat's hands, no longer glowing, and water began to fall around them, completely eliminating the Zombie creatures that were fighting her friends.

Kat fell to her knees, de-morphing as the attack finished. She was breathing heavily.

* * *

"Kat are you...are you alright?" Kim asked as she ran over to Kat. She was glad to see that her friend was still conscious, and seemed to be just fine.

"I'm...fine." She said though a brief cough as she tried to regain her breath.

Truth was she was a little bit exhausted from the attack. Her legs felt like mush right now, and her arms felt like heavy weights had been placed on them.

"You did great Kat!" Trini said. "That was really impressive."

Kim briefly looked over her shoulder to where Asherah was lying. Asherah had returned to her human form, and was lying on the ground, badly injured. She had almost forgotten about what had been said earlier, about Asherah being an old friend of his. She knew that he had to rather upset about the outcome of this battle. After all, it had to seem like a lose-lose situation to him.

It was either, let Kat die...and lose the battle, and an ally, or it was let Asherah die and win the battle, but lose a close friend.

* * *

Asherah looked up at Alone weakly, as he put her head in his lap, holding her hand.

"The kid was a good fighter, don't you think?" she laughed weakly.

Alone bit his lip and nodded. "Yeah, Zordon always chooses well who's supposed to be protecting him."

"You make sure she stays good, she might just be a kid, but she's got real talent. You hear me Alone?"

"Yeah, Asherah. I hear you."

"Promise me Alone...Promise me you'll make sure."

Alone nodded as he looked down into Asherah's dark eyes. "I'll make sure. I promise."

Asherah gave a brief smile.

"Asherah...I don't want you to die." Alone suddenly blurted out.

With a laugh, Asherah looked up at Alone. "Alone. These things happen. I told you before. I was prepared to give my life for Chaos. You've always got to be prepared to die when you're a Ranger."

"Yeah...but-"

"No 'but's Alone. You know that you've got to be ready to lay down your life in battle, and you have to obey orders. Dalise knew that, and I know that. All of the Ancient guardians know that. All of the Shadow Ninjetti Shoguns knew that. Your father even knew that." She said.

Alone looked over.

Asherah gave a brief pained laugh.

"I think I finally understand it."

"Understand what?"

"What you were talking about earlier...about being free. I get it now."

Alone gave a forced smile as he looked down at Asherah. He wanted to tell her that it was great that she understood, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"Well, Alone...I guess this is it; I guess this is goodbye forever." Asherah said with a cough.

"No. Don't say that."

"Ha-ha, yeah. isn't that rude of me. Dying while I've still got guests and half a pot of tea on the table...what kind of host am I?"

Alone gave a forced laugh at Asherah's joke.

"Just...remember the flowers okay? You promised."

Alone nodded.

With this Asherah gave one last smile and sigh, as the last of her breath and her life was extinguished. Her eyes closed.

* * *

Zack approached Alone, seeing that he was clearly upset about the recent loss of his friend. The least he could do was try to comfort him at little bit.

He put his hand on Alone's shoulder.

"Hey, man. I'm sorry about what happened."

It was all that he could bring himself to say. He couldn't say he knew how Alone felt about it. After all, no Ranger that he knew had ever been killed in battle like that.

Alone gave a brief smile as he looked up at Zack. He appreciated that Zack was trying to cheer him up, even if he didn't know what to say.

"Should we be going?" Jason asked after a few seconds.

Zack patted Alone's shoulder briefly, and gave a smile.

"Go ahead, and go back to the Command Center. I have a couple of things that I need to do first. I will rejoin our shortly after I am finished." Alone said getting to his feet, picking up Asherah's body.

The others nodded as they teleported out of the temple, returning to the command center.

* * *

The room was dark, lit only by the pale blue lights of computers. The slow and constant beeping of one of the machines echoed throughout the room.

"_Life force restoration at 17.5 percent. Estimated time of recovery: 11 days." _


	15. Rest, Relaxation, Rivals and Reawakening

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to power rangers.

**

* * *

Chapter 15: Rest, Relaxation, Rivals, and Reawakening**

It was nearly 2:00 in the morning, and Billy was on his computer at home browsing through information, that was stored in the databanks of the Command Center.

There was all sort of information in there about previous Rangers. He was hoping on finding some information in there about these 'Ancient Guardians' that Asherah had mentioned

He was sure that there was something about them in here.

"Billy, Honey. It's three in the morning. You've been on the computer since you got back from the Command Center. Why don't you give your research a break and get some sleep?" His mom asked as she stood in the doorway of the makeshift lab that had been created in the garage.

Billy rubbed his eyes. Sleep was a good idea. His head hurt with all the information that he had to sort through. So far he wasn't having any luck finding any information that would prove useful.

As he got up from the computer he frowned. He'd pick all this up in the morning. Maybe he wasn't looking for the right information right now.

If he got some sleep he might be able to find a way to go about the things that he needed to be looking up.

* * *

Beelzalea hummed lightly to herself as she browsed through the books in the castle library.

"_Things went perfectly yesterday if I do say so myself my Queen_."

/_I would not get ahead of myself Beelzalea. There are still 10 other Ancient guardians. Any one of which could destroy the Rangers and completely ruin our plans. /_

Beelzalea gave a small smile as she spotted a dusty blue book that was a few shelves above her. It was ironic that most of the plans that had been made in this castle seemed to be focused on destroying the Rangers, and yet here she was making sure the rangers destroyed the monsters they were faced with.

The Rangers were expending their energies and making themselves weaker to her Queen's power, and they didn't even realize it.

To add to that later today, she had arranged for her Mistress Rita and Ivan Ooze to have a lunch together, alone. They were both to drink a love potion and fall madly in love with each other.

Things were going good for her.

The only thing that she had to do was get Zedd not to attend this lunch with the two of them. She didn't want Rita spotting Zedd and falling in love with him. This potion was the most powerful that she had ever made and she had already taken quiet a considerable risk in making it in the first place, there couldn't be any error in the events today. If there was, an antidote for this potion might not be enough to remedy such a mistake.

* * *

At 2:00 in the morning, Billy wasn't the only Ranger who was still awake. Adam had yet to fall to sleep either. He couldn't just get himself to fall to sleep.

He kept wondering when Beelzalea was going to attack next.

Of course she would attack today, Beelzalea's plan seemed to be sending out a monster per day for them to fight, but when would she decide to attack?

As he got out of bed and headed into the kitchen to get something to drink he shook his head.

Personally he would like to see her come down from the moon and fight them face to face. Settle this whole thing once and for all.

In fact, he'd like to see any of their enemies come down and fight. Just have one last battle to settle it all.

Hmph. Yeah, right like that's going to happen. They like playing these games. Kind of makes me wonder if they even really plan on taking over Earth.

If they really wanted Earth, they wouldn't attack Angel Grove specifically, and by now they would have launched a full scale assault on the town and have overwhelmed them whenever they were just a team of five rangers.

"If Beelzalea really was as powerful as they say she is, then she would have been sending out these Ancient Guardians whenever we were still a six ranger team." he muttered to himself as he opened the refrigerator and pulled out the milk.

_And we would have been blasted to smithereens twice as quick... _Something in the back of Adam's brain replied upon these thoughts.

He hated to admit it, but that thought was right, as an twelve ranger team, they were doing well but things were showing signs of becoming more difficult, by cutting that number in half, and facing off against their enemies as they were now, they didn't stand a chance.

This is probably why he thought like he did. If he knew that as a six ranger team they would have been destroyed with their enemy's current strategy, then he assumed that they were smart enough to know that same thing too, and have taken them on sooner.

Things were kind of fishy when it came to the enemies' strategy. He knew they weren't entirely incompetent. So, why did it feel like these plans they had weren't adding up right?

Was all these obviously failed plans, just a distraction from a larger plan that they were putting together, to build up the Ranger's confidence that they had the situation under control and were capable of saving the world, only to be completely blindsided by this plan?

Or, Adam thought as he recalled what Beelzalea had said to them all a while back, was Beelzalea purposefully sabotaging her own plans, to help them?

Just what was going on?

He didn't know, and that's what bothered him.

Usually, when they were just facing Rita and Zedd, he knew what was going on, and if he didn't he'd quickly be able to figure out what was going on, and everything would piece together into a clear and comprehensible plan.

Now?

Ha! He'd was lucky if he could find two pieces of this entire puzzle that could fit together, to even give him half an idea what was going on.

Shaking his head, he brought the glass to his lips and took a drink from the glass of milk that he had poured.

He was on the brink of giving up on trying to figure things out, and just take things as it came. Things would be a lot less crazy than they were now.

As he finished the milk he shook his head. No, he couldn't just do that. He knew something about all this was telling him that he needed to keep trying to figure out what was going on.

Well, he thought as he got up from the table and put the glass up in the dishwasher, I might as well try to get some sleep. We're all supposed to be meeting at the Youth Center tomorrow morning.

Adam gave a small laugh as he sat back down at the table. He, Zack and Kylie had made arrangements to go out into the desert tomorrow, snake-hunting. Apparently, Zack had made plans with Kylie to do that before today, and they invited everyone along if they didn't have anything better to do.

So far it seemed like there were only a few of them were going to be coming with them.

Kat had a dance practice, and then swimming practice.

Kimberly had gymnastics practice.

Billy was thinking about doing some research on these Ancient Guardians.

Trini had agreed to go to lunch with her mother and father, since she hardly had gotten to spend any time with them since she had returned from Switzerland.

Everyone else was going along, not having anything better to do.

They'd be out there for a while, afterwards, everyone agreed that during the afternoon they would all meet down at the beach, and spend the day together.

That was if there wasn't an attack during the day.

An attack might just change all the plans they had up for the day.

* * *

The group had met at the Youth Center that day, with plenty of water bottles and medical supplies on hand, just in case things didn't go well while hunting.

They spent a few minutes at the Youth Center before heading out into the desert in Zack's car and Tommy's truck.

'Thank you guys for deciding to come along. You really didn't have to go snake hunting with me, if you didn't want to." Kylie said as they got out of the car as they got to the desert.

"Ah, it's no problem Kylie; it seemed like a nice change of pace for things today. We have to do something to make the most of our free time, while we've got it." Jason said as he smiled down at the Purple Ranger.

"Good, because I don't want to seem...'pushy.' I think the word is."

"Pushy, you? Hardly." Tanya said as she gave a smile towards Kylie.

"Alright, now let's get started. What do we do first?"

Kylie smiled as she reached into the back of Tommy's truck, where a bundle of sticks were.

"Well, lucky for all of you, I've already taken care of the first part, finding something sharp. I stayed up all night sharpening these up with a rock. They're not as sharp as I would have hoped for them to be, but I believe they'll do just fine."

As each one of the rangers took a stick, Kylie gave smile. "And now comes the fun part! Let's go!"

* * *

Zedd sat in the throne room alone, staring out at Earth.

It seemed that the Rangers were enjoying a time of relaxation; it was almost as if they had forgotten the frequent attacks and were letting their guards down.

Now, would have been a perfect time to strike. The Rangers were divided and didn't seem to even be anticipating an attack.

But, was anyone striking? No.

In fact, Zedd didn't even feel the ambition to attack. What would one more day of letting the Rangers live hurt?

"Zedd. I figured that I would find you here." Beelzalea said as she entered the throne-room, the fog swirling gently around the edges of her robes as she made her way gracefully towards Zedd's throne.

"What do you want, Beelzalea?" Zedd asked impatiently.

With a smile Beelzalea bowed. "I was thinking. You and I started off on the wrong foot; things have been a little rough between the two of us." She said, her eyes becoming red as she stared at Zedd.

Zedd sat still for several seconds. What was Beelzalea getting at?

"I guess I had some hard feelings towards you because you are my Queen Minerva's daughter's husband and I was not sure of what kind of person you really were." Beelzalea continued.

With another bow, she held out her hand. "In order to for us to get to know the other better, may I suggest that the two of us go for a walk?"

Zedd was really starting to get suspicious, it was one thing for Beelzalea to even be talking to him, but it was a completely different thing for her to actually be acting nice towards him.

"What game are you playing at?"

"No game at all, merely a harmless walk. Merely an attempt at starting a friendship."

Zedd got to his feet, accepting Beelzalea's offer. Whatever, she had planned to do to him, he was sure that he would annihilated her quickly before she even had the chance to strike.

"Fine, Beelzalea. Let's walk." He said as the two of them left the throne room together.

Zedd crossed his arms and remained silent for several minutes, until finally he came up with something to say.

"How did you do it Beelzalea?" He asked looking down at her.

Beelzalea raised her eyebrow, pretending to be completely innocent, as if she didn't know what Zedd was talking about.

"Do what?"

Zedd gripped the staff in his hands out of annoyance, and grunted. She was playing stupid; she knew what he was asking her about.

"How did you release them?"

"Release who?"

"The Ancient Guardians Beelzalea. I know that they were sealed away shortly after they destroyed the Ozafinir Kingdom."

Beelzalea smiled as she continued to walk. She figured Zedd would have caught onto that sooner or later and would want to ask questions about it.

"Well, I wasn't entirely alone in the process, you see, the Ninjetti power had to be completely united. With the Great Power of the Ninjetti was complete, being utilized by the Power Rangers, the first step in breaking the seal was done. The second was good enough when all I had to do was manipulate my power to break the last part of the lock."

Zedd looked over.

"Those locks needed the power of two of three specific groups of Rangers to unlock it. Where did you get the other power?"

Beelzalea frowned. Zedd was a lot smarter than he looked; he knew something more about the Ancient Guardians' seal than he seemed to let on. Her eyes narrowed as she looked ahead, he was starting to stick his nose in business where it didn't belong.

"Only the Power Rangers, the Phantom Rangers, and the Shadow Shogun Rangers, power could break that seal. Even manipulating your magic that seal should not have opened. It should have seen that your power was an imitation. As long as there were at least two of each group, who held the power of one whole group...the seal could be broken, by any combination of the three groups." Zedd continued on, clearly not threatened by Beelzalea.

"Because there was only one Shadow Shogun Ranger left who held all of his team's power, it was certain that the seal would never be broken, because no successors to the Shadow Shogun's powers were to be chosen. Now, I know the Great Power of the Ninjetti-although not the original power used in the making of the seal, but was being utilized by the Power Rangers- aided in the breaking of the seal...now...if you had any part of the release of the Ancient Guardians...that would either mean you're more cleaver than I thought about fooling the seal, or you have some association with either the Phantom Rangers or the Shoguns."

Zedd pointed his staff towards Beelzalea's back; she was several paces away from him. At this distance he could have killed her with one hit.

"A good observation. Little did the Council of Magic; know that boy wasn't alone in possessing all the powers of the Shogun Rangers. You see, during the attack on Ozafinir, I stumbled upon a man wearing white armor; he protected me from being killed by one of the attacking soldiers, by deflecting the attack with his wrist morpher. The Morpher cracked killing him by shorting out his morphing powers, causing an explosion, in the explosion a tiny piece of the morpher's core, a white stone, fell to the ground. So I took it up with it, I teleported from the city, not knowing where I would land up." Beelzalea said not turning to face Zedd.

"I found myself at the doorstep of My Queen Minerva. She took me in, seeing that Finster took care of me, and gave me proper training as a Magi. While I trained, I began to realize that the man who I had met, had been one of the Shogun Rangers, Lior...I believe his name was. Because I had taken a piece of his morpher's main core, he upon an unknowing technically transferred its power to me. I was officially a Ranger even if without a proper morpher, and I was prepared to use what power I could draw at my disposal to help my Queen Minerva." She continued,

"I spent several years with Queen Minerva, researching the 'Shadow' Shogun Rangers. Then, I was summoned to aid my Mistress Rita and you in your plans to destroy the Power Rangers. During my time, here, I remembered reading that the Shadow Shogun's power was one of the three powers that had been tied to the seal of the Ancient Guardians, the rangers who had been imprisoned...just as you said. The seal was thought to not be able to be broken...because only one Shadow Shogun existed, and at least two people holding all the power of one groups' power had to be in existence in order for it to work."

Beelzalea laughed briefly, as she wrung her hands together. "Even if all three groups were destroyed...as long as two people from each group, held their group's power, all it would take would be two people, either a Power Ranger and a Phantom Ranger, or a Phantom Ranger and a Shogun Ranger, or a Power Ranger and a Shogun Ranger, to break the seal."

She looked ahead, shadows beginning to creep over her face. "I would have done it all sooner but the Great Power wasn't at its fullest, even as the other power Coins were claimed by former Power Rangers and by others, one piece was still missing, the Bronze Power coin, which until the other day was safely under the protection of Ninjor."

"One could say it was a stroke of pure luck that boy would happen to sneak the Power Coin from under Ninjor's nose and bring it to Earth, and choose a person to posses it's power. If he had known that there was another Shadow Shogun, he probably wouldn't have stolen the Bronze Power Coin, and come to earth at all. But it worked out perfectly for me. With the Great Power of the Ninjetti at its fullest, and two people holding the Power of the Shadow Shogun Rangers. I could break the seal; all I needed was a Power Ranger."

Zedd gripped the staff in his hands tighter as he began to charge up the power in it, ready to strike Beelzalea if she pulled anything funny. He was becoming rather uncomfortable with how she was not looking at him.

"How did you get a Power Ranger to help you?"

Beelzalea smiled.

"It's amazing what Monsters can do."

"Impossible, even a shape shifter monster should not have been able to fool the seal."

Beelzalea held out her hand, summoning an object into it.

Zedd noticed the object, it was a pink arrow.

"Oh, but this was no empty monster of clay and magic. This one had the essence of a Ranger's spirit, a Ranger's blood, and a Ranger's power."

Beelzalea looked down at the arrow in her hands and smiled.

"Unknowingly three rangers helped me break the seal. I pulled this arrow from the Ape's head in the battle against the Sleep-walker. As I extracted this arrow, I pulled an essence of spirit from the Ape. The arrow contained a remnant of power from the Pink Ranger which I used to give it the power it needed to break the seal. In the creation of the monster, I realized I had extracted more blood than I needed from the Frog, and thus I used the excess blood to give the body of the monster a touch of humanity. With this the monster easily imitated a Ranger, even drawing power from the united Ninjetti power."

Zedd grunted, "So you made a Franken-Ranger Monster thinking that the seal would assume it was real."

She made the arrow vanish from her hands as she continued on. "As you can clearly see the monster worked like a charm. All that was needed to break the seal was a simple incantation, in which the two rangers from opposite teams shared power temporarily. The seal recognized the Ninjetti power of the Power Rangers, and the Power of the Shadow Shoguns, and the Ancient Guardians were free."

With a shake of her head, she frowned. "Unfortunately, my Ranger Monster was killed in the process of breaking the seal. The energy was too much for something that was made mostly of small essences of power. It was a real pity too to let such a fine work only be used for one thing."

"So, now that you know the answer to your question. I believe that it is my turn to ask one." She said staring straight ahead.

Zedd was silent for several seconds, waiting for Beelzalea to ask her question.

Beelzalea smiled. Right about now, she knew that Rita and Ivan had already drank the love potion that she had placed in their drinks, by the time that she got back to the castle, Ivan and Rita should have been madly in love with each other.

"How much do you love your wife?"

Zedd growled as he shot a bolt of energy towards Beelzalea's back.

She spun around and blocked it with a glowing white barrier as she drew a katana from thin air.

Zedd had known this was a trap, although he had thought that she had been planning to directly attack him, not to have been luring him away from the castle to carry out some plan to get Rita away from him.

"What have you done with her?" He shouted.

Beelzalea smirked as the shadows on her face grew darker. "It's a real shame that you will be missing my Lord Ivan and my Mistress Rita's wedding."

Zedd shot another blast of energy at her from his staff, one that she gracefully dodged out of the way of, retaliating with a blast of blue energy that Zedd dodged out of the way of.

"I knew you were plotting behind my back to do away with me." He growled.

He sent a bolt of electricity towards her, unfortunately, this time Beelzalea was not able to defend herself. The bolt nailed her right in the stomach sending her to her knees, knocking the wind out of her.

Her white hair fell over her face as she sat there clutching her chest, making big gasps for breath. The Katana lay at her feet in the powdery grey dirt of the moon.

Zedd charged up energy in his staff once more, aiming directly for Beelzalea's head.

"I'll tell you exactly what I told Ivan Ooze. No one messes with Lord Zedd and lives!"

He heard a soft laughing coming from Beelzalea, it became louder as the seconds passed, and soon it became loud and almost psychotic, causing Beelzalea's shoulders to shake uncontrollably as she laughed.

"Kill me then, you're only hurting yourself by doing so."

Zedd hesitated. She must have been the only one to know to undo what had been done, if he killed her now, he was practically screwed.

"Since you have come here, you have targeted me alone, why? I have not crossed paths with you before your arrival here allowing for any event that would allow for roots in your hatred of me."

Beelzalea frowned as she looked down at the ground.

"My arrival at the palace was not the first time we met Zedd. But, it seems you have forgotten the past."

The grey dirt around her began to swirl around her as she slowly got to her feet.

"Perhaps a journey to find such memories is in order. Be gone Zedd, may the next we meet, you remember exactly what it was you have forgotten."

Thrusting her hands out, a huge blast of wind caught Zedd off guard, knocking him off his feet. The dirt picked up in the whirlwind began to spin faster and faster around Zedd. He completely lost sight of Beelzalea.

* * *

Zack didn't know what was wrong with him.

No matter how hard he tried to kill the snake, that he had found, he just couldn't do it.

Again and again he tried, but he'd stop himself before the spear even pierced the snake's skin.

Every time he did, he thought of Minerva.

This whole thing was starting to drive him insane.

No matter what he did, he seemed to keep getting his mind back to Minerva.

The others noticed it too, and it was really starting to worry them. They didn't know what was wrong with Zack, which kept making him freeze up like that.

"Maybe we should call it quits today." Jason suggested as he saw Zack freeze up in front of a snake once more, allowing it to slither away.

Zack nodded. "Yeah."

As they headed back to the car, Tommy and Jason lingered behind.

"I don't know about you, but I think something strange is going on with Zack. I think we should alert Zordon if he doesn't get any better soon." Jason said in a whisper.

Tommy nodded. "Agreed, but maybe we should ask Alone about it too, when he gets back from wherever he is."

Jason raised an eyebrow. He was surprised that Tommy had suggested asking Alone anything. If Alone wasn't willing to put forth information about the situation they were in, what made Tommy sure that he would tell them what was wrong with Zack; that is if Alone knew anything about what was wrong with Zack in the first place.

"Zack's been acting like this since yesterday, and he was around Alone before then. If anything happened, when the two of them ran into Beelzalea the other night, Alone would know." Tommy explained.

Nodding Jason shrugged. "But, you know Alone. He likes to withhold information."

Tommy crossed his arms. "You're right. But it's still worth asking him."

Jason nodded once more and the conversation was dropped as they caught up with the group at the van.

* * *

So this was what Earth looked like, a man with dark hair partially dyed blue asked himself as he stood at the edge of the water at the beach.

Not bad, a little too much land than he was used to, meaning he would have to rely on his human form more often.

As he ran his fingers through his hair he took a look down at his feet, wiggling his toes briefly, as if he wasn't used to them. He gave a small laugh as he drew a line in the sand with his right foot, feeling the warm grainy feeling of it all brush over his bare toes.

"Alright Vega, pull yourself together. This isn't the first time you've walked on land you know. If you're gonna blend in, you've got to stop acting giddy over using your legs." He reminded himself as he took an awkward step forward.

However as he took a step he fell forward onto his face.

It had been a long time since he had walked on land that he had almost forgotten how.

Pulling himself up from the sand, Vega gave a small laugh. It certainly was good to be free.

He paused as he felt the sand beneath his hands. A frown spread across his face as he felt the grains in-between his fingers.

Since he had several thousand years to think about it, he was starting to realize that letting Chaos overwhelm him and enslave him, hadn't been the best thing.

As he felt the sand, he closed his eyes as flashes of that horrible day had gone through his mind.

* * *

"_You have been found guilty of 15,475 counts of murder, of inhabitants of Ozafinir, including the King and the other members of the royal family, and 11 of the Shogun Rangers._

.."

Vega looked into the crowd of hateful faces glaring upon him, close by he saw the red haired boy who was the last remaining Shogun Ranger. His head was hung towards the ground as Vega looked to him.

All he could remember feeling was anger. It was just as much as his fault as it was theirs for what had happened. _Why wasn't he in chains up here too?_ He had thought again and again.

"After careful deliberation, The Council of Magic has decided that the 12 of you are indeed a serious threat to the universe, and thus must be disposed of in a fashion upon which you will face adequate punishment for your actions, and will never harm another living being ever again."

Vega's gaze snapped right back to the judge standing on the platform across from them. What did she mean 'disposed of?' they had been sentenced to death?

Looking over, he saw Asherah's eyes narrow upon the Judge, she growled angrily.

"..._And thus, you are to be sealed away for all eternity_." Vega's managed to catch as he looked back towards the judge.

Vega's throat went dry. Sealed away?

"_No_!" He shouted as the guards behind him took hold of his arms and began to lead him and the others towards the chamber where the sentence was to be carried out.

He couldn't be locked away like this. He hated closed spaces!

He'd have rather have taken death over all of this!

"_Not that. Anything but that_!" He screeched as he struggled.

He continued to struggle against his bindings even as he was chained down to a stone table in a temple far away from the court.

Even as the two groups of Rangers and the last Shogun Ranger surrounded him and the others, He continued to struggle to break free.

"_Please...No!_"

After that he felt as if he had been drained of all energy, and he had drifted off to sleep.

Unfortunately, no dreams came. Instead he found his consciousness swimming in an endless abyss, the only thing to keep him company was the ever-changing shapes that would appear in the watery blue glow that surrounded him.

But even then, sometimes those were unfriendly for they liked to change shape to resemble things and scenes from his life that he had given up. Things that he wished he had back. People he wished he could apologize to.

Vega had lost all track of time as he learned to live in this dull and boring existence, reflecting back on what he had done, and accepting this existence as punishment.

* * *

Shaking his head, Vega continued to get to his feet.

Now that he had thousands of years to think about it, Chaos had betrayed them. It had given them power, but at the cost of all humanity. It used them for what it had wanted and then it had just allowed them to be tossed out like worthless trash.

Why they had decided to go back to agree to work for it again. Vega had no idea.

If it was for the sake of gratitude that the new favorite of Chaos had happened to be a Shogun Ranger and had freed them only for the purpose of doing Chaos's bidding once more, Vega didn't agree.

Forget it. It's only been using us, I don't owe it anything. Whatever it wanted to do that involved the Ancient Guardians; they'd just have to do it without him.

Vega the Blue Dragon of Water was not going to have any part in this, thank you very much. The others might be willing to just continue in this life of servitude, but that wasn't him anymore.

In fact, he was considering giving the whole 'lone Ranger' thing a try. He was going to be his own boss, neither on the side of the Rangers of Earth, nor on the side of Chaos.

Yep, that sounds like a good idea, if he was being used he would be the only one to bla-

"oof!"

Something collided with Vega rather hard, knocking him off his feet.

"I'm sorry are you alright?" A voice asked from above Vega.

Vega blinked as he stared up at the person that had just spoken.

She was a rather lovely blond haired teenager, with eyes as blue as sunlit water, a green beach towel was slung over her shoulders and a green pair of sunglasses perched on top of her head.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Should have watched where I was going." He said casually as he got to his feet, dusting the sand off of his jeans.

The girl gave a smile. "It's my fault really. I wasn't watching where I was going. I was more concerned about meeting up with my friends that I didn't even see you standing there, and ran right into you."

The Girl pushed a stand of blond hair behind her ear. "I haven't seen you around before. Are you new to Angel Grove?"

Vega smiled, and nodded. "You could say that. I just got here in fact."

The girl held out her hand, "Well, welcome to Angel Grove, I'm Katherine Hillard; most of my friends call me Kat though. It's nice to meet you..."

Vega bit his lip for a second.

"Uh...Vincent." He said hesitantly as he shook Katherine's hand, "It's nice to meet you too Katherine."

Kat smiled briefly, and then checked her watch. "Well. I've got to get going. It was nice meeting you. I hope to see you around later. Maybe at the Youth Center or something."

She gave Vega a small smile and a wave and then headed off down the beach, giving him a glance over her shoulder as she walked.

Vega waved at her until she had turned her back on him.

Yeah, I'm sure I will be seeing you around Green Ranger. He thought as he watched her walk away.

_So, that's one of Zordon's Rangers? _Vega thought. _She's kind of cute._

Shaking his head Vega turned and started to walk down the beach. He couldn't be thinking that. Regardless of who he was working for, himself or Chaos, she was practically his enemy.

He shouldn't be thinking she was cute. She was one of the people who had locked him away all those years ago!

Well, Vega thought, It wasn't her exactly...from what he could tell from the information he had picked up about her from shaking her hand, She was the green Ranger of the Great Power of the Ninjetti, and the power that had locked him up had been a part of the DinoPower. Although, from what he could tell, the Dino Power had been replaced by the Ninjetti power, meaning that the Dinopower had to have been destroyed sometime in the process.

Regardless she was a successor to Zordon's Green Power Ranger, and thus by association Vega could say that she was one of the people who had locked him away.

She was his enemy.

* * *

"Maybe it's just me, but all this peace and quiet has really got me worried." Trini said as she helped lay out the picnic blanket on the sand.

Kimberly nodded, in agreement as she checked her watch.

"Yeah, it's almost 3:00, and there hasn't been any form of an attack what so ever." She said shaking her head as she smoothed out one corner of the blanket.

Aisha shrugged as she sat down in the sand.

"Maybe they're all taking a vacation." She suggested.

With a frown, Jason looked out over the ocean, the villains taking a vacation, it was highly unlikely. He couldn't help but feel that something was up. With how Zack had suddenly started acting, the peace and quiet. Something was definitely up.

"Right now, I don't care what they're up to! We've got some peace and quiet and I plan on enjoying it!" Aisha added with a smile as she stretched and yawned.

Kat nodded as she pulled her green shades over her eyes and pulled a book from her backpack, flipping it open to the spot where she had placed a bookmark.

Tanya frowned and pulled out a bottle of water from the cooler, twisting the cap open. She looked down at the sand briefly before twisting the cap off and taking a drink of water.

She hadn't been on the team as long as the others, but she was starting to get used to how her fellow rangers thought.

Even though they act like they're enjoying this peace and quiet, they couldn't stop worrying about what was to happen next. They were constantly on their guard. They had to be.

Jason, Billy, Tommy, Adam, and Zack seemed to be the only ones here who were clearly displaying how on edge they were about what this peace and quiet could mean.

All five of them wore frowns of deep concentration on their faces as they tried to keep themselves busy with some other task.

"Any luck on finding any information on these Ancient Guardians?" She asked, looking towards Billy in an attempt to make some conversation with him.

Shaking his head, Billy put the MPVG down next to him. "I've searched countless files in the Database, but I've come up with nothing."

Tanya smiled and shrugged. "Don't give up Billy. I'm sure there has to be some information about them in the Database somewhere. You'll find it."

Billy gave a weak smile towards Tanya and then directed his attention right back to the MPVG.

With a sigh, Tanya looked out towards the ocean.

These guys were serious when it came to Ranger business, even a day of relaxation they were focused on Ranger business.

Tanya began to wonder exactly how long it would take her to end up like that. She had only been a Ranger for awhile, so she was still trying to get used to the idea of what it meant to be a Ranger. If not being able to enjoy a time of relative peace and quiet was a part of it, Tanya only hoped that it would be awhile before that happened to her.

Not that she didn't admire her friends for their devotion to their duties; in fact she kind of wished that she was more like them in that sense. Just not the extremes that they were taking it, such as barely smiling with sincere happiness.

With a small sigh, Tanya looked out over the water. For now, until she had as much experience as her teammates, she was going to enjoy her relaxation.

* * *

Zedd awoke to a throbbing pain in his side. It was to be expected when having been hurled pretty far across the universe, onto a planet's surface.

Getting to his feet, Zedd quickly took note of something odd. Flesh now covered his body, from head to foot. It was a strange sight to see upon his own body, since flesh had not existed there since he had tried to capture the Zeo Crystal for himself.

Even now just thinking about that day made Zedd's new skin tingle with the memory of his hand upon the Zeo Crystal as it identified him as not having a pure heart or spirit. The intense heat and power surging through his being for what felt like an eternity as his flesh was burned to ash from his body. Just leaving him alive enough to live as he had been until coming to this place.

Unkempt hair grew from his scalp, falling around his shoulders.

His mask had become a pair of silver rimmed sunglasses with red lenses.

He was now clothed in red garments, mostly a suit similar to a business suit.

This had to be Beelzalea's doing. She had used her magic to change his appearance, into how it had once looked many years ago. Zedd thought as he continued to his feet, looking around the area.

But for what reason had she done this?

The area around was nothing more than piles of slightly charred rubble overgrown with weeds, vines and grass. This place had once been a town, Zedd thought as he approached one of the partially intact structures, but had clearly been forgotten by its former inhabitants since its destruction.

As Zedd ran his hand along the stone pillar that had collapsed into the building which he was now standing in. As his fingers brushed against the smooth white stone, he could almost hear the panic of this town's inhabitants as they were attacked. He could feel the heat of the long dead flames on his fingertips. All he could do was envision the memory.

* * *

"_Help! Help!" _A woman screamed as she frantically looked around among the fleeing crowd.

"_Ma'am! It's not safe here; I must ask you to please leave immediately!" _A voice called from nearby the woman as a person in Yellow Shogun-like armor approached her, a group of frightened citizens at their side.

"_But my daughter! She's still in the house! Please, I can't leave until she's with me_!" The woman pleaded, staring at the Yellow Shogun.

For several seconds the Yellow Shogun looked to be in debate on what to do. With all hell having broken loose, they were not quite a liberty to be standing there, without running the risk of dying.

Quickly she, the Yellow Shogun, turned to the man standing to her left. "_I trust you to get these people to the shelter. The entrance to the tunnels is just up ahead. One of my comrades should be there, if not...just follow the paths, One of the castle's attendants will find you and lead you to the shelter_." She said sternly.

"_You're going in_?" The man asked, almost stunned that their protector would be leaving them to fend for themselves in the midst of all this chaos and destruction to save the life on one individual. His voice sounded as if he didn't know whether to admire her or not.

Looking at the woman who had been shouting earlier, she placed her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Ma'am. I can't allow you to stay here. Please go with these people. As soon as your daughter is safe, I'll bring her to the shelter." She said gently.

The woman looked towards the burning house and then to the Yellow Shogun before her. "P-promise?" she said with a tremble in her voice.

The Shogun nodded. "_I swear upon my life_." she said, before herding the group on down the road, past her before rushing into the burning house.

Her armor protected her from the flames as much as it could, but the intense heat was already threatening the material of her Ranger armor to catch fire. The smoke hung in the air thickly; she could barely take in a breath without coughing.

"_Help_!" A child's voice called out from fire, as she drew close to a small section of the house that had yet to burn down.

The shogun rushed towards the child as quickly as she could though all the smoke, however just as she got to the child a stone pillar came crashing in through the building separating the two between a brief barrier of ashes and flames. Shooting ashes and flames towards the Yellow shogun, engulfing her.

* * *

Zedd withdrew his hand quickly from the pillar as this part of the vision occurred. He didn't want to see any more of this vision.

The sound of footsteps upon the stone and grass path caught Zedd's attention. He wasn't alone here.

As he turned he gripped the staff in his hands tightly, ready to combat whoever was approaching him.

Finally the footsteps drew close enough that its owner and Zedd could see each other clearly.

Each stared at the other for a long period of time allowing the tension between the both of them to grow as each grasped their weapons, ready to strike first if a fight should break out.

The hateful glare in the icy blue eyes of the boy who had just shown up was not lost on Zedd, as was the hateful glare in his own eyes towards the boy lost on him.

"I'm surprised you bothered to return to this place." the boy said with a tone that matched the icy color of his eyes.

Zedd frowned as he looked at the boy in black clothing a few feet away from him. "I'm surprised you bothered to abandon the rangers to return to this place. Alone."

"Ozafinir is my home. I think I have the right to return here whenever I wish."

Zedd crossed his arms as he looked around. So that is where Beelzalea had sent him, right to the home planet of the Shogun Rangers. Obviously there had to be something that she had wanted him to remember about this place.

Had he been to Ozafinir before, when there had been a civilization here? With all the kingdoms that he had conquered and been to in his lifetime, he couldn't remember.

"But why are you here?" Alone asked tightening his grip on his sword, and taking a few steps towards Zedd. "And why do you look like that?"

Zedd grunted, just Alone's presence here seemed to be wearing on his nerves. "What do you care how I look, or why I am here?" He shot back glaring at Alone from behind his sunglasses.

A smirk appeared on Alone's face as he made the katana in his hands vanish. "Beelzalea turned on you did she?" he asked, almost with a sort of glee in his voice. The tone bothered Zedd, he didn't not quiet appreciate an ally of his enemy taking such pleasure from his misfortunes. Why should Alone be so happy that the she-devil known as Beelzalea had turned on him luring him right into a trap which there may be no way of repairing?

Alone couldn't help but having felt this smile creep across his lips. Something about Beelzalea's betrayal seemed to be temporary source of joy for him. Surely her attack upon Zedd had not been of Chaos's orders; after all he knew well that Chaos would rather have had her kill Zedd rather than play games with him by sending him all the way out here and restoring some of his youth to him.

Or maybe it was just the idea of the whole event of seeing Zedd suffering because of Beelzalea's grudge against him that brought the smile to his lips.

Either way, he was smiling and he had no real idea what it was that gave him such a joy.

"I wouldn't be smiling like that if Beelzalea had done what she had done to me, to you." Zedd said.

"Oh, Of course not. You'd be dying of laughter." Alone stated back, his voice dropping into tones of sarcasm.

With a frown Zedd charged some of his power up into his staff, even if he was back into a much more human form, he could still use his power. He was offended that Alone was even making such remarks. He has no idea how tough this betrayal is.

"Shut up you fool! You have no idea what it is like to be stuck on this forsaken planet, while everything I've worked for is being stolen from me by Beelzalea and Ivan Ooze." He roared.

Alone's eyes became serious as he looked at the sparking staff a few feet away from his face. He was holding back on hauling off and hitting Zedd for saying that he didn't know what it was like. While he wanted to call Zedd out on how he was only grieving on things that had no importance, he felt that even if Zedd did not admit it, the power and status that he had lost due to Beelzalea's backstabbing were the least of his grieving right now. Beelzalea and Ivan Ooze had taken something else from him, which bothered Zedd a lot more than he let on.

"I never said I didn't see you were suffering."

Zedd lowered his staff, but kept his glare focused on Alone.

The red-haired teenager put his hand on his hip for a second as he looked around, trying to figure out where to continue this conversation between him and an enemy of his allies. Finally he nodded and looked towards Zedd.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this...but your pitiful condition right now has actually gotten to me. But, If you join me, and assist the Rangers, I'll see what can be done to help you regain your throne from Beelzalea." he said, eventually sighing and crossing his arms. Alone knew that the other Rangers weren't going to stand for it, but he was sure that he could work out a good enough disguise for Zedd's identity from the Rangers, until the issue had been resolved and Zedd had been restored to his place of evil.

"Join you and the Rangers? Absolutely not!" Zedd roared angrily as he stared at Alone. It was a preposterous idea! Like hell he was ever going to lower himself to assisting his sworn enemy, just to get his dignity as an emperor of evil back. There was no way.

"So you'd rather stay here on Ozafinir for the rest of your life, despite the fact if you come with me, only three people will know it is you. Zordon, you, and myself that is. Four if you count the robot Alpha. But, I can swear them to secrecy, if I have to. The Rangers will not be aware that it is you, and you can actually begin to understand how the Rangers work until either Beelzalea or Ivan Ooze or eliminated, as that seems to be the only two ways that I even see you retrieving your throne again." Alone stated as he started to walk away.

Zedd hesitated. Working for the Rangers, under a different identity would be a good chance to spy, and eventually formulate a plan that could lead to their destruction later was a tempting offer, but there was still just one thing bothering him about this offer.

"Aren't you working for the Rangers?"

Alone stopped walking and looked ahead. "Yes."

"Then why are you so eager to allow me, a sworn enemy of the Rangers and yourself, get so close to them, and you're not even the least bit concerned that I will use any knowledge I gain while being there against the Rangers, and destroy them and you along with them?"

"I'm not saying I'm not concerned, nor am I eager, and that I don't have my doubts about what you joining forces with the rangers until you get your throne back will mean, and no. I don't trust you in the least, and I know that it's going against all sense of logic and better judgment, and by allowing an enemy into the ranks is potentially deadly, and when your identity is found out, It is likely that I will find myself in an even less appeal light in the eyes of Zordon's rangers than you yourself will be in."

Zedd remained silent for a few minutes, as he watched Alone stand there staring straight ahead for a few seconds before turning around and facing him.

"However, I find that you are not without your uses to the rangers, and for me." Alone finally stated, crossing his arms and giving Zedd a sly smile.

Zedd didn't even want to know what Alone had planned by saying that he was going to be useful to him.

"Whatever suits you. You can stay here on Ozafinir, in this city, for all I care, but I should warn you it's going to be dark in a few hours, and if you want to spend the rest of your life on this planet, by all means stay outside, you won't have as long to wait since you'll undoubtedly be dead by morning." Alone called over his shoulder as he continued along down the road.

Biting his lip, Zedd swallowed hard, as he tried to force his pride down. He couldn't believe it but he was actually going to take up Alone's offer to join forces with the Rangers, even if temporarily. Right now, getting his wife back and getting even with Beelzalea was more important than anything.

"Wait!" He began, taking a deep breath as he followed Alone, causing the red haired boy to stop and turn towards him. "Fine. I'll join you. But don't think this means that I'm going to be in your debt or anything."

Alone smiled and extended his hand towards Zedd. "Fair enough." he stated as Zedd shook his hand, "We leave for Earth tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?" Zedd asked crossing his arms.

Alone and Zedd continued down the path for a few steps before Alone turned towards Zedd, his face remaining serious.

"We need time to think of an identity for you, while you're among the Rangers. It won't help you to have your identity revealed to the Rangers quickly. They may not recognize you in your current state, but they're not stupid, and can spot a weak disguise from a mile off. If they find you out quickly, even explaining your story to them, they won't be as merciful as I am being. They hate you already."

Zedd nodded. Alone did make a good point. If the Rangers did figure out that it was him before he had even had the chance to do anything, he might as well just not bother trying to get Rita back in the first place. He needed their help to get her back, even if he hated to admit it.

"Besides. I still have other business to attend to here."


End file.
